Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
phrase
Used to highlight a situation in which circumstances have changed, yet this change has gone unacknowledged or is being denied.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: humorous
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell, in which the world is divided into the superpowers of Eastasia, Eurasia and Oceania. Oceania is in a state of perpetual war with one of the other powers but its alliance keeps shifting, and the government never acknowledges that its current adversary is its former ally and vice versa.
