mother of all
Used before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or…Used before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).
» Tom's mother makes all his clothes.
Мама Тома шьёт ему всю одежду. — marafon
Мать Тома шьёт ему всю одежду. — marafon
Мати Тома шиє весь його одяг. — deniko
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(colloquial, idiomatic)Used before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).
, etc.
Near-synonym: Big One
Examples
40 sentencesTom's mother makes all his clothes.
Мати Тома шиє весь його одяг. — deniko
ruМама Тома шьёт ему всю одежду. — marafon
She watched over her mother all night.
She doesn't take after her mother at all.
ruОна совсем не похожа на мать. — marafon
My mother made all my clothes when I was young.
Tom said Mary didn't look like her mother at all.
Origin
Calque of Arabic أُمّ (ʔumm, “mother (of)”). Popularized and given its current sense by SaCalque of Arabic أُمّ (ʔumm, “mother (of)”). Popularized and given its current sense by Saddam Hussein's claim that the impending Gulf War would be the أُمّ المَعَارِك (ʔumm al-maʕārik, “mother of (all) battles”), though mother had long been used in somewhat similar senses in English, and other familial terms are used with the same meaning, like granddaddy (of all traffic jams) and father (of all battles).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.