Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Metropolis
Me-trop′o-lis
,Noun.
1.
The mother city; the chief city of a kingdom, state, or country.
[Edinburgh] gray
metropolis
of the North. Tennyson.
2.
(Eccl.)
The seat, or see, of the metropolitan, or highest church dignitary.
The great
metropolis
and see of Rome. Shakespeare
Webster 1828 Edition
Metropolis
METROP'OLIS
,Noun.
Literally, the mother-city, that is, the chief city or capital of a kingdom, state or country, as Paris in France, Madrid in Spain, London in Great Britain. In the United States, Washington, in the District of Columbia, is the metropolis, as being the seat of government; but in several of the states, the largest cities are not the seats of the respective governments. Yet New York city, in the state of that name, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, are the chief cities, and may be called each the metropolis of the state in which it is situated, though neither of them is the seat of government in the state.