from / frəm/ • prep. 1. indicating the point in space at which a journey, motion, or action starts: she began to walk away from him I leapt from my bed | fig. he was turning the committee away from appeasement. ∎  indicating the distance between a particular place and another place used as a point of reference: the ambush occurred 50 yards from a checkpoint.2. indicating the point in time at which a particular process, event, or activity starts: the show will run from 10 to 2.3. indicating the source or provenance of someone or something: I'm from Hartford she phoned him from the hotel she demanded the keys from her husband. ∎  indicating the date at which something was created: a document dating from the thirteenth century.4. indicating the starting point of a specified range on a scale: men who ranged in age from seventeen to eighty-four. ∎  indicating one extreme in a range of conceptual variations: anything from geography to literature.5. indicating the point at which an observer is placed: you can see the island from here | fig. the ability to see things from another's point of view. 6. indicating the raw material out of which something is manufactured: a varnish made from copal.7. indicating separation or removal: the party was ousted from power after sixteen years.8. indicating prevention: the story of how he was saved from death.9. indicating a cause: a child suffering from asthma.10. indicating a source of knowledge or the basis for one's judgment: information obtained from papers, books, and presentations.11. indicating a distinction: the courts view him in a different light from that of a manual worker.PHRASES: as fromsee as¹ .from day to day (or hour to hour, etc.) daily (or hourly, etc.); as the days (or hours, etc.) pass.from now (or then, etc.) on now (or then, etc.) and in the future: they were friends from that day on.from time to time occasionally.