metropolis
(mɪˈtrɒpəlɪs)
Also 6– polus; pl., 7 -polisses, 8 -polis's, 9 -polises.
[a. L. mētropolis, a. Gr. µητρόπολις, f. µητρο-, µήτηρ mother + πόλις city.]
1. The seat or see of a metropolitan bishop.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 425 The bischopis sait..Fra Abirnethie translatit hes he..To Sanct Androis..Metropolus of all Scotland to be. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 117 And therof is metropolis called the chief citee where the archebishop of any prouince hath his see. 1595 Shakes. John v. ii. 72 The great Metropolis and Sea of Rome. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xviii. 740 Let this Town [Canterbury]..Of all the British Sees be still Metropolis. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., In Asia, there were metropolis's merely nominal, that is, which had no suffragan, nor any rights of metropolitans. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) II. 145 Plata was erected into a bishopric in 1551,..and in the year 1608 was raised to a metropolis. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. App. E. 342 Irenaeus was the bishop of Lyons, the metropolis of Gaul. 1850 Neale East. Ch. i. Introd. 44 Marcianopolis lost its metropolitical rights, though it still continued a See; and Debeltus or Zagara became the Metropolis of the province. |
2. The chief town or city of a country (occas. of a province or district), esp. the one in which the government of a country is carried on; a capital.
The metropolis, often somewhat pompously used for ‘London’. Also, in recent use, occasionally applied to London as a whole, in contradistinction to the City.
| 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iii. v. 36 That sweet land, whose braue Metropolis Reedified the faire Semyramis. 1636 Davenant Wits iv. i, O, to live here i' th' fair metropolis Of our great isle. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. (heading), To the Metropolis of Great Britain, the most renowned..City of London. 1695 Echard Gazetteer Pref., All the metropolisses of provinces. 1726 Franklin Jrnl. Wks. 1887 I. 104 Newport..is the metropolis of the island [Isle of Wight]. 1805 W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1864) I. 149, I have not taken a single note since I have been in this metropolis [Paris]. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. I. 291 London is now so often visited, that the manners of the metropolis are to be found in every country gentleman's house. 1838 Athenæum 31 Mar. 233/2 Liverpool, New York, and the ‘Great Metropolis’. 1862 P. M. Irving Life & Lett. W. Irving (1864) I. i. 17 Kirkwall, the metropolis of the island group [Orkneys]. 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 21 July 44/1 She [Trinity College, Dublin] lives in a workaday world, because she lies at the heart of a metropolis. |
| fig. 1806 Med. Jrnl. XV. 195 The stomach is the metropolis, and all the other parts and provinces of the frame are dependent upon the proportion of its vigour or decay. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home, Civic Banq. II. 255 His stomach [appearing] to assume the dignified prominence which justly belongs to that metropolis of his system. |
b. A chief centre or seat of some form of activity.
| 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics 517 Heaven is the metropolis of all perfection. 1743 J. Morris Serm. vii. 198 Their city was the fountain and metropolis of idolatry. 1783 Burke Sp. East-India Bill Wks. IV. 78 This center and metropolis of abuse [the Carnatic], whence all the rest in India and England diverge, from whence they are fed and methodized. 1816 Scott Tales My Landlord Ser. i. Introd., Our metropolis of law, by which I mean Edinburgh, or..our metropolis and mart of gain, whereby I insinuate Glasgow. 1864 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. xvi. (1875) 272 To half the Christian nations Rome is the metropolis of religion, to all the metropolis of art. |
c. Nat. Hist. The district in which a species, group, etc., is most represented.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 489 The metropolis of the group [Petalocera] is within the temperate zone. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vi. (1873) 135 Almost every species, even in its metropolis, would increase immensely in numbers, were it not for other competing species. |
3. Gr. Hist. The mother-city or parent-state of a colony. Hence occas. applied to the parent-state of a modern colony.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 135 Doing the dewtie of a good Colonia to her Metropolis. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxiv. 131 The Common-wealth from which they [sc. the colonists] went, was called their Metropolis, or Mother. 1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 359/1 If a colony wished to send out a new colony, this was properly done with the sanction of the metropolis. 1852 J. A. Roebuck Hist. Whig Ministry II. 197 The best means of making the wants of the colonies known to..the metropolis which founds them. |