Green’s Dictionary of Slang

of people, each and every one; of objects, everything.

1595		Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream I ii: That would hang us, every mother’s son.
1599		J. Hayward Henry IIII in Manning (1991) I 81: Sir Hugh swore, ‘swownes, and snayles, let vs set vpon them, and kill euery man and mothers childe’.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Honest Man’s Fortune I i: Every mother’s son Of all that multitude of hearers went.
1639		J. Clarke Paraemiologia 239: Every mothers childe of you.
1660		‘A Dialogue betwixt Tom & Dick’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 190: There’s not a Penny to be had, / And ev’ry Mothers Son / Must fight, if he intend to eat.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 11: I’ll drown ’em ev’ry Mothers Son.
1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband I i: She was Wet-Nurse to every Mother’s Babe of ’um.
1739		R. Bull Grobianus 49: But, like a Man of Might, give Place to none, And take the Wall of every Mother’s Son.
1767		‘Andrew Barton’ Disappointment I i: I’ll immediately to the attorney-general, and lodge an information against you and hang you every mother’s son!
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 148: Attend, each mother’s son; / This battle must be lost, or won.
1785		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Lousiad’ Works (1794) I 246: Cooks, scullions, hear me ev’ry mother’s son.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 47: This god, for rage or fun, / Has pepper’d ev’ry mother’s son.
c.1810		‘The Blind Sailor’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 29: The crew, each mother’s son, they sunk.
1818		Byron Beppo iv: They’d haul you o’er the coals [...] with every mother’s son.
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 6: Go aft on the quarter-deck, man and mother’s son of ye, to muster!
1825		J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 249: Not a single mother’s son of them.
1832		S. Warren Diary of a Late Physician in Works (1854) III 227: I wish we all were—every mother’s son of us!
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow I 105: If she’s not mine in half an hour, I’ll flog each mother’s son.
1840		‘The Royal Nuptials’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 315: The prince has promised to sind a shipful of harrins [...] to iviry mother’s son av us.
1848		W.E. Burton Waggeries and Vagaries 77: Skeet, every daddy’s babby of you.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 248: I love every mother’s son of you.
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 101: Tell me whar that d----d gal is, or I’ll cut every mother’s child of you to death.
1864		J.R. Lowell Fireside Travels 148: We all go to the slop-shop and come out uniformed, every mother’s son.
1872		‘Farmer Greeley or Soldier Grant’ Farmer of Chappaqua Songster 45: His owld fashioned coat and white cawbeen [...] Will inspire ivery son of his mother.
1872		Huddersfield Chron. 13 Apr. 3/2: Disraeli made a splendid speech / [...] / And when he had done each mother’s son cried, ‘Hip,hip, hurrah!’.
1876		Sheffield Indep. 23 Dec. 15/1: I can go out now and shoot for every mother’s son of ’em, can’t I, eh?
1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 110: Here, every mother's son, come aft!
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 225: I suppose he’d rub them [policemen] out, every mother’s son, if he could.
1890		Phillipsburg Herald (KS) 9 May 4/4: And last of all the public schools / [...] / Which ought to make each mother’s son / As good and great as Washington.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 162: They have that to give which is wanted by every mother’s son.
1904		Hawaiian Star (Honolulu) 12 Mar. 12/3: [cartoon caption] Stove me, if every mother’s chick didn’t fly out.
1905		Kentuckian (Hopkinsville, KY) 20 July 4/4: Each mother’s son may growl.
1908		E.S. Sorenson Quinton’s Rouseabout and other Stories 188: ‘[S]he’s got away with 1130 quid of your money.’ ‘What! [...] all in the soup?’ ‘Ev’ry mother’s son,’ said Tunstal Jack.
1918		R.D. Paine Fighting Fleets 198: They expected to be drowned, every mother’s son of them.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 380: Some randy quip he had from a punk or whatnot that every mother’s son of them would burst their sides.
1934		T. Minehan Boy and Girl Tramps of America (1976) 162: Every mother’s son of them is crooked.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 71: We ought to string them up, every last mother’s son of them.
1957		(con. 1944) A. Myrer Big War 349: Does every last mother’s son of you have to be thrown in a hole.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 69: ‘Lord yes,’ the old man said. ‘I guess we all do, every mother’s son of us.’.
1993		S. Heaney Midnight Verdict 33: Leave him in strips from head to heel Until every single mother’s son In the land of Ireland learns a lesson.