mother of

the mother of all (something)

The largest, most extreme, or ultimate example of a particular kind of thing. The word that follows "of" is usually plural. Wow, that is the mother of all sandwiches. It's a foot high!
See also: all, mother, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

mother of

The best or greatest of a type, as in That was the mother of all tennis matches. This expression originated during the Gulf War as a translation of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's term umm al-ma'arik, for "major battle"; the Arabic "mother of" is a figure of speech for "major" or "best." It was quickly adopted and applied to just about any person, event, or activity. [Slang; late 1980s]
See also: mother, of
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • the mother and father of all (something)
  • the mother of all
  • the mother of all (something)
  • the mother of something
  • stumps
  • desperate straits
  • pec
  • pecks
  • Pécs
  • pects
References in periodicals archive
Sri cautions the reader not to confuse the royal dignity of the Mother of God with views of queenship based on abstract metaphysics or Western political monarchies.
Peter's Square in Rome, His Holiness Pope John Paul II proclaimed Gianna Beretta Molla, Mother of a Family, "Blessed." From that moment onward until today, the number of friends of my mother in Canada has grown to be so many.
In her Washington Post Magazine story about mothers and work, Tracy Thompson tells the story of Ana Kinney, a hairdresser, the mother of two young children, and a reluctant primary breadwinner since her husband's business venture had folded.
Perhaps the Mother of the Year Award should indeed o to Dolores Claiborne.
Only the most misguided theologian would suggest that honouring the mother of Our Lord somehow displeases Him.
Only extended time away from family and the workplace would enable "the burdened mother of today [to] achieve a real recovery." [8]
("I shuddered to think of being the mother of children that should be owned by my old tyrant" [385-86].) When she learns that he is building her a cottage in which to consummate their liaison, she dematerializes, figuratively speaking, in order to waft between the rock and the hard place and, incredibly, locates a mediating space among her grandmother's impossible moral code, the loss of her chosen first love, Mrs.
She is the mother of the welfare state, the progenitor of the nanny state and its resentful children.
Rolheiser's credal statement, "One Lord, One baptism, and One God who is Father and Mother of all."
One physician noted that the mother of one patient fired thirteen wet nurses in fourteen days.
After accusing her mother of laughing at God, she says:
Fortunately however, the love of the natural mother of Jesus is available to all without exception.
In our analysis, attention is primarily directed to the survival prospects of the child in four different family contexts; the mother of the child has died, the father has died, the surviving parent has remarried and the child lives in a complete family.
It is a strange thing: feminists want to nail a female god to the cross, but the Mother of God they reject.
For tho' it be such a favour to be the Mother of many, yet there are Greater favours than this to set our Hearts upon; and it may be you in your Espousals to Christ have much more to satisfie your Soul in; or at least thither let me direct you."(83) For women who could not fulfill their highest earthly duty, and receive the honor due them as good mothers, only the hope of an eternal reward could give solace.