city

plural cities · alternative obsolete citie · alternative obsolete cittie · alternative obsolete cyte · alternative obsolete cytee

1. A large settlement, bigger than a town; sometimes with a specific legal definition, depending on the place.

   São Paulo is the largest city in South America.

   5 more examples

   Ah, knovv you not the Citie fauours them, / And they haue troupes of Souldiers at their beck?

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 147, column 2

   So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   But clever cities will not necessarily be better ones.

   2013 September 7, “The multiplexed metropolis”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852

   One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.

   2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891

   All our stations have changed. We have to constrain numbers. We have to mandate face coverings. These are massive changes in what is a public transport city. This is not a car city.

   2020 July 15, Mike Brown talks to Paul Clifton, “Leading London's "hidden heroes"”, in Rail, page 42

2. UKhistoricalA settlement granted special status by royal charter or letters patent; traditionally, a settlement with a cathedral regardless of size.

   St Davids itself is the smallest city in Great Britain, with a population of less than 2,000.

   2014, Graham Rutt, Cycling Britain's Cathedrals Volume 1, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 307

   1 more example

   Manchester, incorporated in 1838, was made the centre of a bishopric in 1847 and became a city in 1853. Liverpool was transformed into a city by Royal Charter when the new diocese of Liverpool was created in 1880.

   1976, Cornelius P. Darcy, The Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Lancashire, 1760-1860, Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 20

3. AustraliaThe central business district; downtown.

   I'm going into the city today to do some shopping.

4. slangA large amount of something (used after the noun).

   It’s video game city in here!

1. informalball gamesManchester City Football Club, an English football club.

   City will reportedly look to have a fee for Aguero.

   1 more example

   Smalling’s quick one-two of yellow cards towards the end of the first half had left an air of inevitability about what would follow and, if anything, it was probably a surprise that City restricted themselves to Sergio Agüero’s goal bearing in mind another of United’s defenders, Marcos Rojo, was taken off on a stretcher early in the second half with a dislocated shoulder.

   2014 November 2, Daniel Taylor, “Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United”, in The Guardian

1. UKThe City of London, the historic core of London where the Roman settlement of Londinium was established.

   Synonyms: the Square Mile

2. UKThe United Kingdom's financial industries, which are principally based in the City of London.
3. New YorkThe borough of Manhattan, the historic core of New York.
4. Any of several other cities in metropolitan areas (such as San Francisco).