Definition of "dear"

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, [Act IV, scene i]

This water is sold for 50 cents per ton, which is not dear under the circumstances.

1902, Briquettes as Fuel in Foreign Countries (report of the United States Bureau of Foreign Commerce)

Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear.

1966, The Beatles (lyrics and music), “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

"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, page 129

"I've never met the kind of man I mean." "Tell me about him. What does he look like?" "Oh, he might look very much like you." "How dear of you to say that!"

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton

“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

Nor should a Sonne his Sire loue for reward, But for he is his Sire, in nature dear’d.

1603, John Davies of Hereford, Microcosmos

I should have known no less: It hath been taught us from the primal state That he which is was wished until he were; And the ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love, Comes deared by being lacked.

1623, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra

Nay, hide him in thy house, and also show Such deared love to him, as to delight In his base company both day and night?

1679, Benjamin Keach, The Glorious Lover, page 164

If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]