From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdear old ...dear old ...British English spoken used to describe someone or something in a way that shows your love or liking of them SYN good old Here we are, back in dear old Manchester! → dear
Examples from the Corpus
dear old ...• Just like my ball club in Saint Louis, my dear old chums the Cardinals.• That's a hundred more than dear old David Beckham gets from his Ferrari 550.• You had to talk to those dear old folk at the Empress and I don't blame you.• He was a dear old gentleman who was very kind to me.• So the evil monster had brought unhappiness and death to a dear old man who had never hurt anybody.• The Republicans, like Chambers, soon decided they wanted to go back to dear old Nixie. 