set great store by someone or something
to have positive expectations for someone or something; to have high hopes for someone or something. I set great store by my computer and its ability to help me in my work. Bill sets great store by his expensive tools.
set great store by, to
To value highly. This phrase uses store in the sense of something precious, a usage dating from Chaucer’s time but now obsolete except here. It has also been put as set little or no store by, meaning to value scarcely or not at all. Laurence Sterne used it in Sentimental Journey (1768), writing about a starling: “The bird had little or no store set by him.”