Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Dear
Dear as the land to shipwrecked mariner.
—Æschylus
Dear as her mother holds her infant’s grave.
—Bogart
Dear as the nurtured thrill of joy.
—Robert Burns
Dear—as his native song to Exile’s ears.
—Lord Byron
Dear as fairy fable.
—Madison Cawein
Dear as liberty.
—Cicero
Dear as the soul o’er thy memory sobbing.
—James G. Clark
Dear as freedom is.
—William Cowper
Dear as a child’s curling fingers.
—Olive Tilford Dargan
As dear as to the lover the smile of a gentle maid.
—Bartholomew Dowling
Dear, as the apple to thine eye.
—Timothy Dwight
As dear to me as my own right hand.
—Sir William Schwenk Gilbert
Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.
—Thomas Gray
Dear as his eyeball.
—Thomas Heywood
Dear as these mine eyes.
—Christopher Marlowe
Dear as light.
—Hannah More
Dear as the vital stream that feeds my heart.
—Hannah More
Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life.
—Thomas Otway
Dear as my finger.
—William Shakespeare
As dear to me as life itself.
—William Shakespeare
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty.
—William Shakespeare
Dear
As human heart to human heart may be.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dear as remember’d kisses after death.
—Alfred Tennyson
Dear as the visions of the promised bride lighted by love.
—C. P. Wilson