English Explanatory Dictionary

we have always been at war with Eastasia

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. Used to highlight a situation in which circumstances have changed, yet this change has gone unacknowledged or is being denied.

Word forms

we have always been at war with Eastasia we have always been at war with East Asia we have always been at war with Eurasia we've always been at war with Eastasia we've always been at war with East Asia we've always been at war with Eurasia

Etymology

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.

Related words

there is no war in Ba Sing Se
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