cherish

verb

1. To treat with affection, care, and tenderness; to nurture or protect with care.

   “[T]he ſame Sun vvhich only cheriſheth and gently vvarmes his Countrey men, halfe parboyle and tanne other people, and thoſe rayes vvhich ſcorch the aduſted ſoyles of Calabria and Spaine, only varniſh and guild the green hony-ſuckled plaines and hillocks of England; […]”

   “But the parent, we will ſuppose, cheriſhes his child with an affectionate indulgent care, and with all the circumſpection and aſſiduity that nature requires, in his infirm helpleſs ſtate of infancy; aſſiſts and cheriſhes his underſtanding, in its tender growth does; his utmoſt, according to his ability, to inculcate and impreſs religious principles, […]”

   “On the evening previous to her being brought to my home, my mother had said playfully,—"I have a pretty present for my Victor—to-morrow he shall have it." And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally, and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish.”

   “There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker arm-chairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, boxing-gloves, a model oar, and other modest trophies or mementos of his college boating club; and all these articles, together with small knicknacks dating from Oxford days, made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.”

2. To have a deep appreciation of; to hold dear.

   “I cherish your friendship.”

   “his long-cherished dream”

   “Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]”

   “So by cheriſhing Humility, Pride is weakned, by cheriſhing Patience, Violent Paſſions, and Anger, and Peeviſhneſs are deſtroyed, by cheriſhing Purity, and Chaſtity of Heart and Thoughts, Uncleanneſs is mortified, and ſo by cheriſhing heavenly mindedneſs, the love of the world is abated and weakned: and the like might be ſhewed in other inſtances.”

   “The age in which all thought that trades must be established by bounties and prohibitions; that manufacturers needed their materials and qualities and prices to be prescribed; and that the value of money could be determined by law; was an age which unavoidably cherished the notions that a child's mind could be made to order; that its powers were to be imparted by the schoolmaster; that it was a receptacle into which knowledge was to be put and there built up after its teacher's ideal.”

3. (obsolete)To cheer, to gladden.

   “And by the way, as was her wonted guize, / Her merry fitt ſhee freſhly gan to reare, / And did of ioy and iollitie deuize, / Her ſelfe to cheriſh, and her gueſt to cheare: […]”

   “The webbe of our life, is of a mingled yarne, good / and ill together: our vertues would bee proud, if our faults / whipt them not, and our crimes would diſpaire if they / were not cheriſh'd by our vertues.”

name

1. A female given name.