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Glite Dictionary
everybody and his brother

everybody and his brother

1 6.7
A very large number of people, almost everyone
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : todo el mundo
  • Did everybody and his brother sign up for the workshop?

Examples

  • The new restaurant is so popular that everybody and his brother is trying to get a reservation.

  • Everybody and his brother turned up at the festival this year.

  • You can't keep it a secret—everybody and his brother already knows.

  • It seems like everybody and his brother is attending the concert!

  • Almost everybody and his brother attended the concert last night.

  • When the new restaurant opened, everybody and his brother came to try the food.

  • The news spread so fast that everybody and his brother was talking about it.

Synonyms

everyone
vseverybody and his brother
∞ 1.0

All the people in a group

refers to a very large majority rather than absolutely all people
everybody
vseverybody and his brother
∞ 1.0

All the people in a group or situation

means a very large number but not literally every single person
one and all
vseverybody and his brother
23 2.8

All people without exception

expresses a very large number, not strict inclusion of everyone
every man Jack
vseverybody and his brother
  • Informal
1 9.0

Every person, without exception

is used for most people and implies a very large number rather than total

How Many

everybody and his brother
  • Informal
1 6.7
everybody
∞ 1.0
lots
  • Informal
1.0
many
9 1.0
a few
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

everybody and his brother main

Morphology

everybody + and + his + brother

The headword 'everybody' already denotes all people and the addition 'and his brother' functions as a redundant emphatic extension, so a learner who knows the parts can plausibly infer it means ‘lots of people / almost everyone’. However, the phrase is a colloquial intensifier rather than a strictly compositional combination, so its idiomatic nuance and register are not fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

The phrase everybody and his brother comes from a simple joke: people added his brother to everybody to paint a picture of an even bigger crowd. So it came to mean 'almost everyone' or a very large number of people.