Definition of "metropolis"

Colonies certainly did not become "clones" of their metropolises, but it is equally false that their colonial heritages were not influenced by the organization of the metropolises.

2010, James Mahoney, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective

An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting.

1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rural Life in England

[I]t would not be very much less absurd for someone to write about New York City after having spent only a few years or a few decades in this metropolis of inexhaustible adventure, of terrifying emotional fecundity, of uncapturable character.

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52

Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition

1983, “Sleeper in Metropolis”, in Changing Places, performed by Anne Clark

They call me the Hiphopopotamus / Flows that glow like phosphorous / Popping off the top of this esophagus / Rocking this metropolis

2008, “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”, performed by Flight of the Conchords