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Dear   /dɪr/   Listen
adjective
Dear  adj.  (compar. dearer; superl. dearest)  
1.
Bearing a high price; high-priced; costly; expensive. "The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear."
2.
Marked by scarcity or dearth, and exorbitance of price; as, a dear year.
3.
Highly valued; greatly beloved; cherished; precious. "Hear me, dear lady." "Neither count I my life dear unto myself." "And the last joy was dearer than the rest." "Dear as remember'd kisses after death."
4.
Hence, close to the heart; heartfelt; present in mind; engaging the attention.
(a)
Of agreeable things and interests. "(I'll) leave you to attend him: some dear cause Will in concealment wrap me up awhile." "His dearest wish was to escape from the bustle and glitter of Whitehall."
(b)
Of disagreeable things and antipathies. "In our dear peril." "Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day."



noun
Dear  n.  A dear one; lover; sweetheart. "That kiss I carried from thee, dear."



adverb
Dear  adv.  Dearly; at a high price. "If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear."



verb
Dear  v. t.  To endear. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dear" Quotes from Famous Books



... scrutinize the composition of his character,—we cannot take that large, free, genial nature to pieces, and weigh this and measure that, and sum up and pronounce; we are too near as yet to him, and to his loss, he is too dear to us to be so handled. "His death," to use the pathetic words of Hartley Coleridge, "is a recent sorrow; his image still lives in eyes that weep for him." The prevailing feeling is,—He is gone—"abiit ad plures—he has gone over to ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown

... or no liberty; while the Portuguese have so much freedom in this said city, as has been and is seen, as I have already stated. Consequently, what our people have brought from that city has always been too dear, by reason of the aforesaid profit which the said Portuguese have made of it. They, not content with this, have (as is well known also), whenever opportunity has arisen to send any ship of his Majesty from this city to bring back at his royal account military supplies for the provision ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXV, 1635-36 • Various

... How shameless is our prayer! Not on hard turf To stretch our dying limbs; nor seek in vain, When parts the soul, a hand to close our eyes; Not with the helmet strike the stony clod: (19) Rather to feel the dear one's last embrace, And gain a humble but a separate tomb. Let nature end old age. And dost thou think We only know not what degree of crime Will fetch the highest price? What thou canst dare These years have ...
— Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars • Lucan

... Ethel. "My dear mother, you never saw such ices. Only two kinds. And one a common little strawberry shop ice, in a ...
— The Garden Party • Katherine Mansfield

... recollection of Constance Landbrooke still floated like a faded perfume. His love for Conny had been a very delicate affair, for she was a very sweet little creature. She was like one of Lawrence's creations, with all the dainty feminine graces so dear to that painter of furbelows and laces and velvets, of lustrous eyes and pouting lips, a very re-incarnation of the little Countess of Shaftesbury. Lively, chattering, never still, lavish of infantile diminutives and silvery ...
— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio


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