From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe fond of somebodybe fond of somebodyLIKE somebody OR somethingto like someone very much, especially when you have known them for a long time and almost feel love for them Joe’s quite fond of her, isn’t he? Over the years we’ve grown very fond of each other. → fond
Examples from the Corpus
grown ... fond of• He had always liked her, had grown very fond of her and now he was finding her intensely desirable.• He had grown fond of her in the last few days.• Willie longed desperately to be in Mrs Hartridge's class even though he had since grown quite fond of Mrs Black.• Over the course of our five months together, I had grown very fond of Peter.• Dotty Blundell had grown especially fond of Stella.• Annie herself had grown very fond of the child.• Come Epiphany, she had grown too fond of them to take them down.• He had grown fond of this place, and now, soon, he was to leave it. 