dearness

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

High cost

Nouns

1. dearness, costliness, high, stiff, or famine price, pretty penny; overcharge, price gouging; extravagance, exorbitance; heavy pull upon the purse, an arm and a leg; sellers' market; inflation (see increase).Informal, big ticket. Slang, highway robbery, scalping.

2. big-ticket item.

Verbs

1. be dear, cost much, cost a pretty penny; rise in price, look up; overcharge, overprice, gouge, scalp, jack up [the price]; soak, bleed [white], fleece, extort (see stealing).Slang, stick, clip, soak, skin, take [to the cleaners].

2. pay too much; pay through the nose, pay dear, give or pay an arm and a leg.

Adjectives — dear, high, high-price[d]; of great price, expensive, costly, precious, dear bought; overpriced, unreasonable, excessive, extravagant, exorbitant, extortionate; at a premium, not to be had for love or money, beyond or above price; priceless, of priceless value, invaluable; worth its weight in gold, more precious than rubies, more precious than life itself. Informal, pricy, too rich for one's blood, out of sight.

Adverbs — dear, dearly; at great cost or expense, at a premium.

Quotations — If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it (J. P. Morgan), Those things are dearest to us because they have cost us most (Montaigne), Money often costs too much (Emerson), Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you (Thomas Jefferson).

Antonyms, see cheapness.