Cherish head of household, elderly lady (4,4)

I believe the answer is:

hold dear

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'cherish' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'head of household elderly lady' is the wordplay.
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
'elderly lady' becomes 'olddear' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The first letter of 'household' is 'h'.
'h'+'olddear'='HOLD DEAR'

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I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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