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Big brother   /bɪg brˈəðər/   Listen
Big brother

noun
1.
An authoritarian leader and invader of privacy.
2.
An older brother.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Big brother" Quotes from Famous Books



... died four years before; but he had a mother, who had to work very hard to keep the children clean and get them enough to eat. He had, too, a big brother Tasso, who worked for a gardener, and every Saturday night brought his wages home to help feed and clothe the little children. Tasso was almost a man now, and in that country as soon as you grow to be a man you have to go away and be a soldier; so Lolo's mother ...
— The Story Hour • Nora A. Smith and Kate Douglas Wiggin

... apprehension, for he feared the latter might adopt violent tactics, and as his tenderness for Nana was so nervously expansive that he could not keep anything from her, he soon began talking of nothing but his big brother, a great, strong fellow, who was capable of ...
— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

... and we well on our way to the surveyor's camp at the other side of the lake," was the impatient rejoinder of Hugh Jervois, Dick's big brother. "This place isn't healthy for us after what happened to-day." And he applied himself still more vigorously to his task of putting into marching order the tent and various other accessories of their holiday "camping out" beside a remote and rarely ...
— Adventures in Many Lands • Various

... Va., with her big brother, who cannot give her all the comfort that she needs in the trying hot weather, and she goes to the seaside cottage of an uncle whose home is in New York. Here she meets Gladys and Joy, so well known ...
— Dorothy Dainty at the Mountains • Amy Brooks

... relation to Ian, it was natural that Mercy and the chief should draw yet more to each other. Mercy regarded Alister as a big brother in the same class with herself, but able to help her. Quickly they grew intimate. In the simplicity of his large nature, the chief talked with Mercy as openly as a boy, laying a heart bare to her such that, if the world had many like it, ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... of this sort are common wherever undue importance attaches to the conversion experience, and the numerical ideal of church success prevails. If the task becomes too great for the pastor let him find a responsible "big brother" for every boy ...
— The Minister and the Boy • Allan Hoben

... by a short sermon to the children from the minister—at least he called it a sermon, but to Martha it seemed just a tender little talk from a big brother who loved his little brothers and sisters so that he could not keep his love from showing, and who loved the dear Jesus more than he loved them. Martha had never been talked to like this. She sat forgetful of everything, even the woolen gloves, and at times the minister turned her way and ...
— The Transformation of Job - A Tale of the High Sierras • Frederick Vining Fisher

... sighted an emu, the elder one said to the younger: "You stay quietly here and do not make a noise, or Piggiebillah, whose camp we passed just now, will hear you and steal the emu if I kill it. He is so strong. I'll go on and try to kill the emu with this stone." The little Weeoombeen watched his big brother sneak up to the emu, crawling along, almost flat, on the ground. He saw him get quite close to the emu, then spring up quickly and throw the stone with such an accurate aim as to kill the bird on the spot. The little brother ...
— Australian Legendary Tales - Folklore of the Noongahburrahs as told to the Piccaninnies • K. Langloh Parker

... "When my big brother was sick, and they were praying for him to get well. The doctors could not save him with boiled turnip juice or with any other of the medicines they used, so my parents ...
— A Chinese Wonder Book • Norman Hinsdale Pitman

... watch lay in his hand, and she did not know how to get it back again. When he had set his heart on anything Lucy usually gave up. Barbara looked on in disapproval as the big brother put the watch in ...
— Jimmy, Lucy, and All • Sophie May

... Paul who had seemed overwrought, Babbitt who had been the protecting big brother, Paul became clear-eyed and merry, while Babbitt sank into irritability. He uncovered layer on layer of hidden weariness. At first he had played nimble jester to Paul and for him sought amusements; by the end of the ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... quick, appealing glance at his big brother's face. There were tiny rivulets of slaver at ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... ten children we would win perhaps three. Back across the fields they trooped to our car, clean faces, matted dirty hair, their wee bundle tied up in a colored handkerchief, no hats, under the loose dark shirt a tiny Catholic charm. We lifted the little people into the big yellow ambulance—big brother and sister, sitting at the end to pin them in. We carried crackers and chocolate. They are soon happy with the sweets, chattering, enjoying their first motor-car ride, and ...
— Golden Lads • Arthur Gleason and Helen Hayes Gleason

... they would rather have me for a friend than an enemy. You see, I can think of such extraordinarily nasty things to say about people I don't like. But this little girl treated me as if I had been an older sister or a kind big brother, and—well, ...
— Penny Plain • Anna Buchan (writing as O. Douglas)

... ears—not that they knew what all these sounds meant. They only knew that it seemed as if the end of the world had come. Ernest, miserable as he was, wondered if the Telephone Boy had gotten safely home, or if he were alone in the draughty room in the basement; and Roderick hugged his big brother, who slept with him and said, "Now I lay me," three times running, as fast as ever his tongue ...
— The Children's Book of Christmas Stories • Various

... in an hour in the whale-boat for Guvutu, big brother," Joan said to him. "Tell your brothers, all of them, so that they can get ready. We catch the Upolu for Sydney. You will all come along, and sail back to the Solomons in the new schooner. Take your extra shirts and dungarees along. ...
— Adventure • Jack London

... keen on flying. What boys are not? Their interest had been stimulated particularly, however, by the news, the year before, that Harry Corwin's big brother Will, an old Brighton boy of years past, had gone to France with the American flying squadron attached to the French Army in the field. True, Will was only a novice and the latest news of him from France told that he ...
— The Brighton Boys with the Flying Corps • James R. Driscoll

... Perigord pie. Deserta Grande has midway precipices 2,000 feet high, bisected by a lateral valley, where the chief landing is. Finally, Cu de Bugio (as Cordeyro terms it) is in plan a long thin strip, and in elevation a miniature of its big brother, with the additions of sundry ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... anxiously, and was so shocked that he forgot the strange blithe little farm entirely. For Lionel was as wan and wasted as though he had been through a fever, and his rosy face was white, and his merry eyes were melancholy. And suddenly, as Hobb clasped him, he flung his arms round his big brother's neck and buried his face in ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon

... that he was living with a woman who had come no one knew whence. This it was which had severed the last tie between himself and his mother, all piety and propriety. For three years Pierre had not once seen Guillaume, whom in his childhood he had worshipped as a kind, merry, and fatherly big brother. ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... have even attempted to prove that Capital and Labor are twins, and that in order to maintain their common interests they ought to live in harmony; or, that if Sister Labor had a grievance against its big brother it ought to be settled in a calm and peaceful way. Meanwhile the dear sister was fleeced and bled by Brother Capital, and every time the abused and slaved and outraged creature would turn to her brother for justice ...
— Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 4, June 1906 - Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature • Various

... carrying this big brother act too far," Jack said. "I didn't notice any conferences ...
— Star Surgeon • Alan Nourse

... weeds, And when it's tidy we shall plant, and put labels, and strike cuttings, and sow seeds. We are so fond of flowers, Jack and I often dream at night Of getting up and finding our garden ablaze with all colours, blue, red, yellow, and white. And Midsummer's coming, and big brother Tom will sit under the tree With his book, and Mary will beg sweet nosegays of Jack and me. The worst is, we often start for the seaside about Midsummer Day, And no one takes care of our gardens whilst we are away. But if we sow lots of seeds, and take plenty ...
— Verses for Children - and Songs for Music • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... Little Ararat, an independent conical peak of 12,800 feet, without snow, but conspicuous and distinct from surrounding mountains; its proportions are completely dwarfed and overshadowed by the nearness and bulkiness of its big brother. The Aras Plain is lava-strewn and uncultivated for a number of miles; the spongy, spreading feet of innumerable camels have worn paths in the hard lava deposit that makes the wheeling equal to English roads, except for occasional stationary ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... naivete. It seemed, too, to set him right in his own eyes, to sweep away a creeping feeling that had been beginning to trouble him. He was playing with a child. That was all. There was no harm in it. And when he had kissed her in the dawn he had been kissing a child, playfully, kindly, as a big brother might. And if he kissed her now it would mean nothing to her. And if it did mean something—just a little more—to ...
— The Call of the Blood • Robert Smythe Hichens

... few days in Tinkletown, Miss Bonner found much to love in Rosalie, much to esteem and a great deal to anticipate. Purposely, she set about to learn by "deduction" just what Rosalie's feelings were for the big brother. She would not have been surprised to discover the telltale signs of a real but secret affection on Rosalie's part, but she was, on the contrary, amazed and not a little chagrined to have the young girl meet every advance with a joyous candour, that definitely set aside any possibility ...
— The Daughter of Anderson Crow • George Barr McCutcheon

... the baby will be too small and helpless to play, and will need his big brother to take care of him so that he may grow tall and strong. Then, by and by, he will be able to run about and talk, and play with you. But always, always, he will need you to help him, and teach him, and ...
— All About Johnnie Jones • Carolyn Verhoeff

... but none of thy hard names, friend Glumm, else will I set my big brother Erling at thee. There now, don't give way again. What a storm-cloud thou art! Will the knowledge that Ada loves thee as truly as thou ...
— Erling the Bold • R.M. Ballantyne

... lass, knew her! good heavens, what next? Did Daisy never speak to you about me? I don't believe it. Before I left it was 'Sandy, Sandy,' from morning to night. It was not in her to forget. Tell me, lass, did you never hear of your mother's big brother, Sandy Wilson ...
— How It All Came Round • L. T. Meade

... but then she supposed it had always been Morton. That night when she went home she astounded her mother by asking why Frank's name wouldn't be Frank Gates if Marian was to be Marian Morton. She also made her big brother's face flush by asking if Marian's red hair really truly ...
— Chicken Little Jane • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... Ted, defiantly. "Anyway, I don't suppose you are going to let him handle me too rough! I dare say he won't actually punch me, for fear of getting into a row with you—though" (and here a wicked twinkle came into Ted's eye, for he knew the pugnacity that lurked in his big brother's scientific nature), "though he does say he can particularly knock the stuffing ...
— The Raid From Beausejour; And How The Carter Boys Lifted The Mortgage • Charles G. D. Roberts

... can flirt perfectly at his ease when he knows that his "attentions" are not merely watched by vigilant chaperons, but are actually reduced to a matter of numerical calculation—that a certain number of dances, or calls, or polite speeches will justify a stern father or big brother in asking his "intentions." ...
— Modern Women and What is Said of Them - A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) • Anonymous

... colour rose in Darsie's cheeks. "Well, I'm very glad he did. I like girls best, and I thought he looked conceited and proud. My best friend has a big brother, too, but he's not a bit like yours. Rather shaggy, but so clever and kind! He promised to write to me while I was here, just because he knew I should be dull. It's really an honour, you know, for ...
— A College Girl • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... if you thought I couldn't do it! Think of the bad grammar! It was not a strong point at Miss Talebury's! Yes, Walter," she continued, talking like a child to her doll, "it was little Molly's first! and her big brother cut it all up into weeny weeny pieces for her! Poor Molly! But then it was a great honor, you know—greater than ever ...
— Home Again • George MacDonald

... than a year, and was perhaps then mourning me as dead, perchance had gone herself to the tomb in grief for the loss of her first-born son; of my reverend father, whose wise counsel I had often needed and longed for; of my sweet sisters and little brother, who every day wondered if their big brother still lived ...
— Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army • William G. Stevenson

... coward and a pup. I'll tell my big brother on you, and he can thrash you with his little finger, and I'll make ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... girl, I'm a modest violet, I am, but I don't mind mentionin' that the general opinion up at the club is that I'm a little wizard with the cue. Well, w'en he got through with me I looked like little sister when big brother is tryin' t' teach her how to hold the cue in her fingers. He just sent them balls wherever he thought they'd look pretty. I bet if he'd held up his thumb and finger an' said, 'jump through this!' them balls would ...
— Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed • Edna Ferber

... Steve heard a sudden rumbling which suggested thunder, the children cried, "The train, the train," and stopping the mules quickly the big brother who was driving jumped down, while three of the children sprang out with a bound and all grasped the bridles at their heads. It was done so quickly there wasn't time to ask a question and then a monster came tearing, puffing, hissing past them. Steve's eyes almost started from ...
— The Boy from Hollow Hut - A Story of the Kentucky Mountains • Isla May Mullins

... Nellie to school. He came down the road, holding her fat little hand in his, while her bright eyes peered out from under her plain but odd-looking hat in a timid way, which showed at the same time how great her confidence was in her big brother. ...
— Through Forest and Fire - Wild-Woods Series No. 1 • Edward Ellis

... Ralph, and saw the same thing he had seen in Emma's face. Oh, thing's must be very bad when big brother and sister looked so sad! It must be nearly time ...
— Dew Drops, Vol. 37, No. 8, February 22, 1914 • Various

... the turn of the road, every night. And as her wonderful and touching generosity enveloped him, and her strange wisdom and new sweetness impressed him more and more, Wolf marvelled and adored her more utterly. He had always loved her as a big brother, had even experienced a definite heartache when she grew up and went away, a lovely and unattainable girl in the place where their old giddy dear little ...
— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris

... to me, no matter what you wear, little Miss Colorado," he told her with his warm, big brother's smile. ...
— The Big-Town Round-Up • William MacLeod Raine

... far-flung arrows of the geese went over. Honk! honk! A vague, prophetic sense crept into the world out of nowhere—part sound, part scent, and yet too vague for either. Sap seeped from the maples. Weird mist-things went moaning through the night. And then, for the first time, I saw my big brother win a fight! ...
— The River and I • John G. Neihardt

... home from school, and went about like a dog worshipping his big brother. This is ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... art school and another spent knocking about various European capitals in a somewhat aimless fashion, an amiable but financially restricted family had declined to embarrass itself further for the present with his career. Or, as his Big Brother in Big Business had put it, "the kid had better show what he can do for himself before we go any deeper." Jack had consequently taken an opportunity to see the Fair and remained to earn his living as ...
— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... as sweet and loving as of old, and really, now that she lived in the house with him, Jasper, her bete noire, the awful big brother-in-law who had come and stolen her treasure away, seemed to make but little difference in her life; it was almost nicer being with Hilda in London than being with Hilda at the old Rectory—she seemed to get more undivided attention from her sister than when that sister was the Rector's right ...
— A Young Mutineer • Mrs. L. T. Meade

... trying to find out," said Percy, whom his little sister May called her "big brother;" for only that morning she had said to her mother,—"I will athk Perthy, he ith tho big, he muth ...
— Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad • Various

... chicken pretty badly in our family, and my big brother, who generally went after them, said it was about time I was learning to do something, and sent me over to Mr. Man's to get it. I was very young, and nobody had ever told me the best way to go about borrowing a chicken from Mr. Man. Chickens used to roost ...
— Hollow Tree Nights and Days • Albert Bigelow Paine

... recoiled. She loathed that sort of person, the fallen women off the accommodation walk beside the Dodder that went with the soldiers and coarse men with no respect for a girl's honour, degrading the sex and being taken up to the police station. No, no: not that. They would be just good friends like a big brother and sister without all that other in spite of the conventions of Society with a big ess. Perhaps it was an old flame he was in mourning for from the days beyond recall. She thought she understood. She would try to understand him because men were so different. The old love was waiting, waiting ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... young uns o' Miss Hildy's from cussin' an' gamblin'?" And Jeems Henery shouted: "My big brother Bill!" The Angel, well pleased, ...
— In Happy Valley • John Fox

... you will quit working at the task and trust me, depend on me, I will see that the work is done, and that you get the five dollars." The little brother quits working at the task, and gets out of the field. He believes on, depends on, trusts, his big brother. If, now, there is any failure, it will be the big brother's failure, and not the little brother's. So, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." If, then, the sinner will quit working at the task of his salvation ...
— God's Plan with Men • T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin

... got to stop one thing, Bel. I told him I would play square, and I have. But here it ends. After this, I must step back and be big brother. Lots of fun in this brother business, Bel. But maybe I am cut out for it. Anyway it's written! But if it is, how did she come to allow me such privileges as I took to-day? That wasn't professional by any means. ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter

... big brother stuff," his companion said; "I'm not so much of a dabster at that. You're the one for ...
— Tom Slade at Black Lake • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... happy conceit, forsooth! But there's no need to glare at us like that, my sharp-witted wench. Come, lead on, but go slowly, there. This leg of mine has never mended, bating the scar, since yonder unlucky big brother of yours tumbled me on ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... in deep and restive disgust. He urged instant and copious bloodshed. His big brother's gang could "let daylight into the dude" with enjoyment and despatch. They would watch him ceaselessly and they ...
— Little Citizens • Myra Kelly

... French, "Cormoran largup."—The Shag almost entirely takes the place, as well as usurps the name, of its big brother, as in the Islands it is invariably called the Cormorant. The local Guernsey-French name "Cormoran" is applicable probably to either the Shag or the Cormorant. The Shag is the most numerous of the sea birds which frequent the Islands, the Herring Gull not even excepted, every nook and corner of ...
— Birds of Guernsey (1879) • Cecil Smith

... from her night's experience, but the ceremony and Lans's manner made it all seem like a new play. They were always playing together, he and she. Big brother and little sister lived in the moment and had no care for the past or future. They had breakfast together, after the visit to the missionary, and it was afternoon before they started for home. At ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock

... brokenly, "there is something I want to tell you—I'm afraid you will be angry, but please don't be, big brother, will you?" ...
— Revelations of a Wife - The Story of a Honeymoon • Adele Garrison

... Another, his big brother, though evidently some years younger, is selling doughnuts and bonbons. He is calling on all pretty children far and near to come quickly or ...
— Hans Brinker - or The Silver Skates • Mary Mapes Dodge

... a mischievous curve and a tiny dimple appeared in her cheek. "Don't say as a big brother," she cried, "or you will make me ...
— The Orchard of Tears • Sax Rohmer

... lots of fun, and when I was a boy I used to make lots of them. Big ones and little ones, and the kind that would almost make as much noise as some factory whistles. If you can't make one yourself, ask your big brother, or your papa, or some ...
— Bully and Bawly No-Tail • Howard R. Garis

... man knowing it, and raisin' the devil generally. I promised you I'd let up on him. Mind you keep all your promises to me. I'm glad you're gettin' on with the six-shooter; tin cans are good at fifteen yards, but try it on suthin' that moves! I forgot to say that I am on the track of your big brother. It's a three years' old track, and he was in Arizona. The friend who told me didn't expatiate much on what he did there, but I reckon they had a high old time. If he's above the earth I'll find him, you bet. The yerba buena and ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte

... was a woman. It is woman's divine right to love. Always she had loved Korak. He was her big brother. Meriem alone underwent no change. She was still happy in the companionship of her Korak. She still loved him—as a sister loves an indulgent brother—and she was very, very proud of him. In all the jungle there was no other creature so strong, ...
— The Son of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... during the past years. They had spent their Winters at Seddon Hall and their vacations at Polly's old home in New England with Mrs. Farwell. Polly's uncle, Mr. Pendleton, and Dr. Farwell, had come up on visits when they could. Bob, Lois' big brother, had come, too, but less frequently of late. He was at college now and ...
— Polly's Senior Year at Boarding School • Dorothy Whitehill

... row after supper, and get hauled in by the collar before the General. You can swear you have never been absent from duty: swear the General never gave you forcible furlough. I'll swear it; all our fellows will swear it. The General will say, 'Oh! a very big lie's equal to a truth; big brother to a fact, or something; as he always does, you know. Face it out. We can't spare a good stout sword in these times. On with me, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... called to Bob that she would be ready in a minute. Then she appealed to everybody to help her. There was a hurly-burly, to be sure. She asked mamma to braid her hair; little brother to bring her blue hair-ribbon from her bureau drawer; little Lucy to bring a basket for the prospective nuts; big brother to get the inevitable light shawl which mamma would be sure to make her take along. She begged papa to butter some bread for her, and cut her steak into mouthfuls to facilitate her breakfast, while the ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 - Scribner's Illustrated • Various

... your big brother. Only you must mind what I say to you; else I shall stop being him. Is it ...
— David Elginbrod • George MacDonald

... brother!" laughed her father. "Do you really think they could do with a 'little brother' in the horse guards? He's a big brother, I can tell you, an enormous fellow. He was as tall as I when I went to see him last autumn. And what fists he has got. He won't want a team of oxen to pull [Pg 117] the cart, he'll do it himself. But he'll be good to his little sister. Who wouldn't ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig

... so as a moss-rose. But you'll see. I will be besieged the next few days by my acquaintances for an introduction, and my account of you will make them wild. I shall be, however, a very dragon of a big brother, and won't let one of them come near you who is not a saint—that is, as far as I am ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe

... Please tell Paulina Strozynski's big brother that he must call for her earlier, and not leave her sitting on the steps so long. Tell Mrs. Hickok that if she sends us another child whom she knows to be down with the chicken-pox, we won't take in ...
— The Story of Patsy • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... Millicent had been little more than a child; she had looked up to Mark as she might have done to a big brother, as something most admirable, as one whose dictum was law. During the last year there had been some slight change, but more, perhaps, on Mark's part than on hers. He had consulted her wishes more, had asked instead of ordered, and had begun to treat her as if conscious that ...
— Colonel Thorndyke's Secret • G. A. Henty

... to tease me some, too—asked how you ever came to catch such a pretty girl as me! Then I told him, Joe, that you never had to catch me—that I was little, and hadn't any folks, and how you got your folks to give me a home when you was only a boy; and that you was always like a big brother to me till you made some money in the mines. Then you wrote and asked me to come out and marry you. He just laughed, Joe, and said it was not a brother's love that a wife wanted; but I don't think he knows anything about that—do ...
— That Girl Montana • Marah Ellis Ryan

... for a while. Very closely watched the old toad mother her stolen human son. When by chance he started off alone, she shoved out one of her own children after him, saying: "Do not come back without your big brother." ...
— Old Indian Legends • Zitkala-Sa

... our Government and people, and possible rivals became the best of friends. Preceding and also following this, the States of Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America, tiring of the incessant revolutions and difficulties among themselves, which had pretty constantly looked upon us as a big brother on account of our maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, began to agitate for annexation, knowing they would retain control of their local affairs. In this they were vigorously supported by the American residents and property-holders, who knew that their possessions would double in value ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor

... man moved closer and put a strong arm around her shoulders. "Don't you worry, Kitty. Yore big brother is on the ...
— The Big-Town Round-Up • William MacLeod Raine

... overseer was nothing but poor white trash and the meanest man that ever walked on earth. He never did whip me much 'cause I was kind of a pet. I worked up to the Big House, but he sho' did whip them others. Why, one day he was beating my mother, and I was too small to say anything, so my big brother heard her crying and came running, picked up a chunk and that overseer stopped a'beating her. The white boy was holding her on the ground and he was whipping her with a long leather whip. They said ...
— Slave Narratives, Oklahoma - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From - Interviews with Former Slaves • Various

... Rosie—the big brother to both of you. That's what I shall be in future. And what I've said will be a dead secret between us, won't it? I shouldn't have told you, but I couldn't help it. It was stronger than me, Rosie. Those things sometimes ...
— The Side Of The Angels - A Novel • Basil King

... a die; that's what girls are made for. Now run along home to your big brother, and do put on some warmer clothes under your coat; ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin

... sometimes wish he had a brother or sister near his own age. It did not seem quite fair that he should be so alone in the family. Hugh and Isabel were such nice friends for each other, and so were the two still older sisters and the big brother of all, who was called Robert. Now and then when little Laurence was trotting along the street by Emma's side he would look with envy at other children, two and three together, and wish that one of ...
— The Thirteen Little Black Pigs - and Other Stories • Mrs. (Mary Louisa) Molesworth

... and the Outdoor Girls had taken a great liking to one another—the former declared that it was time she and her big brother must be starting for home. "Dad and mother worry whenever I am out of their sight nowadays—even though Con is ...
— The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island - Or, A Cave and What It Contained • Laura Lee Hope

... cruiser, might feel on seeing a frigate with the Union Jack flying, bearing down and opening fire on their captor; or as a small boy at school, who is being fagged against rules by the right of the strongest, feels when he sees his big brother coming around the corner. The help which he had found was just what he wanted. There was no narrowing of the ground here—no appeal to men as members of any exclusive body whatever to separate themselves and come out of the devil's world; but to men as men, to every man ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... J. Monahan Literary and Social Club, tickets twenty-five cents for lady and gent, including hat-check. She let Carl know that she considered him close-fisted for never taking her to the movies on Sunday afternoons, but he patted her head and talked to her like a big brother and kept himself from noticing that she had clinging hands and would be rather pretty, and he bought her a wholesome woman's magazine to read—not an entirely complete solution to the problem of what to do with the ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis

... beginning to chafe under the sense of restraint. She was being "school-marmed" she thought. No girl likes the ostentatious protection of the big brother or the head mistress. The soul of the schoolgirl yearns to break from the "crocodile" in which she is marched to church and to school, and this sensation of being marshalled and ordered about, and of living her life according to a third person's programme, and that third ...
— The Angel of Terror • Edgar Wallace

... She liked me to hold her and kiss her just as long as I acted like a big brother, but, criminy, when I felt that soft little thing in my arms, I didn't feel like a big brother; I loved her like hell.... She was awfully sweet," he added regretfully; "I wish she ...
— The Plastic Age • Percy Marks

... back her tears, speaking slowly, weighing each word—"you've known me from a little girl—ever since my dear mother died. You have been a big brother to me many, many times and I love you for it. If I were determined to do anything that would hurt me, and you found it out in time, you would come and ...
— Kennedy Square • F. Hopkinson Smith

... Molly," he burst out impulsively, "I'm not going to be sentimental about you. I haven't the least idea of making love to you—I've had enough of that sort of rot, God knows—but I do like you tremendously, and I want to stand to you as a big brother. I never had a sister, ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow

... something more than childish joy showing in her face, an older person would have seen that, but it was largely lost on Rolf. There was a tendency to blush when she laughed, a disposition to tease her "big brother," to tyrannize over him in ...
— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton

... sorry he had run away. Wouldn't there be consternation in the Eagles' Nest when his absence was discovered? How Tabitha would regret her unwarranted harshness! And Toady—Toady would cry and snivel because he had deserted his dear, big brother in his hour of need. And searching parties would be sent all over the country to find him. How he gloated over the pictures his vivid ...
— Tabitha's Vacation • Ruth Alberta Brown

... ever modifying with scientific discovery they hold that 'the good' is a superman, bodiless yet bodily, with a beginning but without an end. It is an attractive faith, enabling them to say to Nature: 'Je m'en fiche de tout cela. My big brother will look after me Pom!' One may call it anthropomorphia, for it seems especially soothing to strong personalities. Every man to his creed, as they say; and I would never wish to throw cold water on such as seek to find 'the good' by closing one eye instead of two, as is done by the extremists ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy

... she changes her mind. Shirley is the baby and pet of six years. As she gets her own way so often, she is badly spoiled and receives many hard knocks before she begins to appreciate the comfort and interest of others. Dr. Hugh is their big brother, who has the care of them in the absence of their parents, and he ranges in their estimation all the way from terrible tyrant to wonderful, necessary brother. There are others who help complicate as well as untangle troubles, ...
— Nobody's Girl - (En Famille) • Hector Malot

... he winced and writhed under the mocking word or light laugh indulged in at his expense. Resenting them bitterly, she gathered up all the love of her passionate little heart and showered it on him, idolizing this big brother of hers to such an extent that even his faults seemed gilded with a halo; and her affection being equally returned, both found their greatest happiness in ...
— Aunt Judith - The Story of a Loving Life • Grace Beaumont

... meant it, but you've paid JACKSON the highest compliment it is possible to convey. When in these times the CHIEF SECRETARY so manages to conduct business of his department that he himself is temporarily forgotten, he's doing it surpassingly well. My big brother ROBERT was once Chief Secretary, though perhaps you forget that also. He resigned because, as he said, there was not enough work to keep an active man going. That was long time ago. I daresay you had no chance of forgetting during the last five years ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, March 26, 1892 • Various

... as "GooseGrease," dressed in a cast-off suit of his big brother's, with his father's hat set rakishly back on his head and over his ears, was coming proudly down ...
— Miss Minerva and William Green Hill • Frances Boyd Calhoun

... said before, a hard boyhood. He knew what cold, hunger and long hours meant as soon as he knew anything; but it was glorified in his memory by the two central figures in it—a good mother, for whom he toiled and suffered cheerfully, and a big brother who helped him bravely over all the bits of life that were too hard for his ...
— Winter Evening Tales • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... BROTHER:—WOULDN'T I like to give you the warmest of sisterly hugs? I can't believe it, and yet I'm in ecstasies over it. To think that you should have got that perfection of a girl, who has declined so many great catches—YOU, my sober, business-like, unromantic big brother—oh, it's too wonderful! But now I think of it, you're just the people for each other. I'd like to say that it's just what I'd always longed for, and that I invited you to Hillcrest to bring it about; but the trouble with such a story ...
— Helen's Babies • John Habberton

... very gallant toward ladies in misfortune, are they? I feel furiously snubbed.... Of course Mrs. Eversham never was much of a writer, but they might send over my letters from the hotel. The last mail ought to have brought a lot from that big brother of mine." ...
— The Palace of Darkened Windows • Mary Hastings Bradley

... I mayn't be thought by others good enough to keep kempany with baronetts ez is to be—though baronetts mightn't object—but I ain't mean enough to try to steal away some ole woman's darling boy in England, or snatch some likely young English girl's big brother outer the family without sayin' by your leave. How'd you like it if Richelieu was growed up, and went to sea,—and it would be like his peartness,—and he fell sick in some foreign land, and some princess or other skyulged HIM ...
— A Phyllis of the Sierras • Bret Harte

... "Now," said big brother Linn, whom the girls hadn't seen much of as yet, but who seemed to be master of ceremonies, "you boys gather those big logs down there, you girls fix the kindling and I'll set these stones up so we get a good draft when we light ...
— Mary Jane's City Home • Clara Ingram Judson

... hurt, and who was not maintaining any dignity. Had Bark been as sure of hand and certain of aim as any archer who lived in later centuries he could not have sent an arrow more fairly to its mark than he sent that admirable sliver into the chest of his big brother. For a second the culprit stood with staring eyes, then dropped his toy and flew into the forest with a howl which betokened his fear of something little less than ...
— The Story of Ab - A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man • Stanley Waterloo

... answered Elgood; "I had a very large present—large for me, I mean—three weeks ago. My father sent me a pound, because it was my birthday, and my big brother and aunt sent me each ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... the last mouthful of her supper, Father and Seppi appeared with the bundles, and then there was the clatter of many little hoofs on the hard earth of the door-yard, and round the corner of the old gray farm-house came big brother Fritz with the goats. With Fritz came Bello, his faithful dog, barking and wagging his tail for joy at getting home again. Bello ran at once to Leneli and licked her hand, nearly upsetting the bowl of milk in his noisy greeting, and the baby crowed with delight ...
— The Swiss Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... He had already awakened the young girl in her, and thereafter he awakened the young woman as well. She clung to him like a child that night, and during the four years following she seemed always to be doing the same. He was her big brother, her master, her lord, her sovereign. She placed him on a dizzy height above her, amid a halo of goodness and grandeur. If he smiled on her she flushed, and if he frowned she fretted and was afraid. Thinking to please him, she tried to dress herself ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine

... who was rushing after his big brother. "Oh, Bert, do let him down. If he falls, he'll ...
— The Bobbsey Twins - Or, Merry Days Indoors and Out • Laura Lee Hope

... roads. To him, a thousand avenues were open. Education had made him acquainted with all the treasures of the world, and liberty had flung open the gates thereunto; but I, who had attended him seven years, and had watched over him with the care of a big brother, fighting his battles in the street, and shielding him from harm, to an extent which had induced his mother to say, "Oh! Tommy is always safe, when he is with{238} Freddy," must be confined to a single condition. ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass

... "My big brother—a year older than me," he whispered. "He is buried out in the graveyard. I'll take you to see the place if you like. ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley

... noon before we were got to Dulverton that day, near to which town the river Exe and its big brother Barle have union. My mother had an uncle living there, but we were not to visit his house this time, at which I was somewhat astonished, since we needs must stop for at least two hours, to bait our horses thorough well, before coming to the black bogway. The bogs are very good ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore

... decision. England, mistress of the seas, is seeking to attain its end by land, and driving her sons by hundreds of thousands to death and mutilation. Is this the England that was to have sat at ease upon its island till we were starved into submission, that could wait till their big brother across the Atlantic arrived on the scene with ships and million armies, standing fast in crushing superiority ...
— In the World War • Count Ottokar Czernin

... number, and the Beluches and Bombay could scarcely be seen under the hot embraces and sharp kisses of admiring damsels. When recovered from the shock of this great outburst of feelings, Kanoni begged me to fire a few shots, to apprise his enemies, and especially his big brother, of the honours paid him. No time was lost: I no sooner gave the order than bang, bang went every one of the escort's guns, and the excited crowd, immediately seeing a supposed antagonist in the foreground, ...
— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke

... Amyas."—They were with difficulty calmed into saying their prayers, and Amoret startled the little congregation by adding to "bless by father, my mother, my brothers and sisters," "and pray bless big brother Amyas best of all, for I love him very ...
— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge

... big brother Walter, While the shepherd was soundly asleep, And he cut up the cows into baskets, And to jack-stones ...
— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878 • Various

... as Dale Wacker, a nephew of Lem. He had noticed a little earlier his big brother, Ira, a loutish, overgrown fellow who had gone around with his hands in his pockets sneering at the innocent fun the smaller boys were indulging in, and bragging about his own especial Fourth of July supply of fireworks which were to come from some mysterious source not clearly defined. ...
— Bart Stirling's Road to Success - Or; The Young Express Agent • Allen Chapman

... me, 'Thank God, for Archie Butt.' Perhaps Major Butt heard it, for he turned his face towards us for a second and smiled. Just at that moment, a young man was arguing to get into a life-boat, and Major Butt had a hold of the lad by the arm, like a big brother, and was telling him to keep his head and be ...
— Sinking of the Titanic - and Great Sea Disasters • Various

... her eyes with a flash of pleasure. Elsmere Swinburne was the occasional relief from his big brother's monotony. Catherine loved little folk, and though Elsmere was known to be a rascal who would have tried the patience of Job, she somehow always found forgiveness for his enormities, and a delighted appreciation for his funny ...
— The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted • Katharine Ellis Barrett

... the snows melted, and the ice upon the great lake, and as the wolves went down to the shore, the boy went after them. And it happened one day that his big brother was fishing in his canoe near the shore, and he heard the voice of a child singing in the ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Various

... and intimate friend in Philadelphia for thirty years, I am free to say that Russell H. Conwell's tall, manly figure stands out in the state of Pennsylvania as its first citizen and "The Big Brother" of its seven ...
— Acres of Diamonds • Russell H. Conwell

... among the Balkan nations, which were still subject to the Turks. Revolts had broken out among the Serbians, and the people of Bosnia and Bulgaria. As has already been told, these nations are Slavic, cousins of the Russians, and they have always looked upon Russia as their big brother and protector. Any keen-eared, intelligent Russian can understand the language of the Serbs, it is so much like his own tongue. (Bel-grad, Petro-grad; the word "grad" means "city" in ...
— The World War and What was Behind It - The Story of the Map of Europe • Louis P. Benezet



Words linked to "Big brother" :   authoritarian, dictator, blood brother, brother



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