hold dear

hold dear (third-person singular simple present holds dear, present participle holding dear, simple past and past participle held dear)

1. (transitive) To value highly; to care about greatly.

   Synonyms: cherish, treasure, prize

• “hold someone something dear” (US) / “hold someone something dear” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “hold something dear” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “hold dear”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• Aderhold