the mother of all {sth}
1
used to describe the intensity of something
he idiom "the mother of all something" is an informal and idiomatic expression that likely originated in the late 20th century. Its exact origin is not clear, but it became popular during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. Saddam Hussein famously referred to the conflict as "the mother of all battles," which contributed to the phrase's widespread use. This idiomatic expression is used to emphasize that something is the largest, most significant, or most extreme of its kind.
- I got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams.
- I woke up with the mother of all hangovers.
- "That was the mother of all storms; I've never seen such heavy rain.
- The project is the mother of all challenges; it will require all of our resources.
- The traffic jam on the freeway is the mother of all traffic jams; we'll be stuck for hours.