ˌNineteen ˌEighty-ˈFour BrE AmE
(1949) a novel by George Orwell which describes an imaginary society of the future, where the government has complete control of everyone’s lives, thoughts, and behaviour, and watches everything they do. The leader of this government is known as Big Brother, and there are pictures of him everywhere, showing the words ‘Big Brother is watching you’. The book has had a great influence on the way that people think about and talk about politics, and people sometimes use the phrase ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ to describe a society that is too strictly controlled.