Dear Meaning
/dɪə/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjHigh in price; expensive.
adjLoved; lovable.
Sentence Examples
Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied.
This book is too dear for me.
Oh dear! I think I've lost my purse!
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She is a ____ friend of mine from our childhood days.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English dere, from Old English dīere (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious, expensive”). Cognate with Scots dere, deir (“of great value or worth, highly valued, precious, beloved”), Saterland Frisian djuur (“precious, dear, costly, expensive”), Dutch duur (“expensive”), German teuer (“expensive”), German Low German düür, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish dyr (“expensive”), Faroese dýrur (“expensive”), Icelandic dýr (“expensive”), Yiddish טייַער (tayer, “precious, expensive”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"There's more depends on this than on the value.
The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,
And find it out by proclamation:
Only for this, I pray you, pardon me."
— c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
"Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear."
— 1966, The Beatles, “When I'm Sixty-Four”:
""Yes, children dear, wait a bit till it turns itself," she answered - she ought to have said "till I turn it"[.]"
— 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 62:
"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:
""We shall have to put up with whitebait. And, of course, a dear little chicken with peas and roast potatoes.""
— 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 129:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She is a ____ friend of mine from our childhood days.