to set store by

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

To value; esteem; regard. This sense of the word store is not noticed by the English or American lexicographers, though it comes to us from a good source. It is much used in New England in familiar conversation, and is also provincial in England, according to Halliwell.


To set value upon; to appreciate. Ex. 'These things we set great store by.' Used only in familiar language. It is provincial in Yorkshire and in Norfolk.--Forby's Glossary.

He [the Ohio boatman] observed very feelingly, that he set more store to this song than to all the rest.--Hall, Letters from the West, Let. 4.

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