mother of

Idioms  

1. 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]

---

Example Sentences

It resulted in Woods’ divorce from Elin Nordegren, the mother of his children.

From Los Angeles Times

“Well, this morning, when we were talking, you got all glum and mumbled that you didn’t know anything about your mother. It was frankly very sad, Clare. It’s been haunting me ever since. So I asked the old rock belly if he ever knew the mother of a cross fox with a silver tail. He’s been alive for a very many years, much longer than you’ve been dead, I’m sure. And it turns out, he did.”

From Literature

And the woman… it was the mother of the girl.

From Literature

“Alex was an incredible husband and father until his very last moment. He fought so hard for a year and never once complained about the pain he was in. The pain I feel now is nothing compared to what he endured,” Christina Duong, the mother of their 5-year-old daughter, Everest, wrote on Facebook.

From Los Angeles Times

Jenner, mother of Kim, Khloé, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian, as well as Kendall and Kylie Jenner, appears in reality TV shows which follow the family in everyday life.

From BBC