The phrase "rather dear" is grammatically correct and can be used in written English.
It means something is quite expensive or costly. Example: "I would love to buy that designer dress, but it's rather dear for my budget."
Queen Victoria was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good".
They will also buy cheap chicken rather than dear beef, potatoes rather than mangetout and plain milk rather than fancy yogurt concoctions.Private-label makers will sell more, but since raw materials are a higher proportion of their total costs (they don't advertise as much as posh brands), they will suffer.
Firms bidding below, say, 8.5 rupees must assume that technology will improve (likely), equipment prices will keep falling (perhaps, but some manufacturers are losing money), or that they can make their sums work by borrowing cheap dollars rather than dear rupees (a foolish risk).Second, if prices do not fall steeply, there may be little appetite for solar power.
It's rather Mommie Dearest for the first serious female contender to try to give the kiddies nightmares.
But, of course, there is nothing to say that the ratio has to be restored by gold rising; oil could be dear rather than gold cheap.
Letters began to arrive for the editor, one of them – rather formal – saying: "Dear Sir, I would quite like to shag Bridget Jones.
Rather than regale dear readers with a long list of memorable examples here and now (for this you'll need the customary quiz, of course, which can be found here) I will just share with you this striking example from the first two paragraphs of a Guardian environmental story from this year.
Longo's, too — when the extent of their petty criminality was about to be revealed, both men killed their nearest and dearest rather than expose them to the squalid truth.
