Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

From

From

(frŏm)
,
p
rep.
[AS.
fram
,
from
; akin to OS.
fram
out, OHG. & Icel.
fram
forward, Sw.
fram
, Dan.
frem
, Goth.
fram
from, prob. akin to E.
forth
. [GREEK]202. Cf.
Fro
,
Foremost
.]
Out of the neighborhood of; lessening or losing proximity to; leaving behind; by reason of; out of; by aid of; – used whenever departure, setting out, commencement of action, being, state, occurrence, etc., or procedure, emanation, absence, separation, etc., are to be expressed. It is construed with, and indicates, the point of space or time at which the action, state, etc., are regarded as setting out or beginning; also, less frequently, the source, the cause, the occasion, out of which anything proceeds; – the antithesis and correlative of
to
;
as, it, is one hundred miles
from
Boston to Springfield; he took his sword
from
his side; light proceeds
from
the sun; separate the coarse wool
from
the fine; men have all sprung
from
Adam, and often go
from
good to bad, and
from
bad to worse; the merit of an action depends on the principle
from
which it proceeds; men judge of facts
from
personal knowledge, or
from
testimony.
Experience
from
the time past to the time present.
Bacon.
The song began
from
Jove.
Drpden.
From
high Mæonia’s rocky shores I came.
Addison.
If the wind blow any way
from
shore.
Shakespeare
☞ From sometimes denotes away from, remote from, inconsistent with. “Anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing.”
Shak.
From, when joined with another preposition or an adverb, gives an opportunity for abbreviating the sentence. “There followed him great multitudes of people . . . from [the land] beyond Jordan.”
Math. iv. 25.
In certain constructions, as from forth, from out, etc., the ordinary and more obvious arrangment is inverted, the sense being more distinctly forth from, out from – from being virtually the governing preposition, and the word the adverb. See
From off
, under
Off
,
adv.
, and
From afar
, under
Afar
,
adv.

Webster 1828 Edition

From

FROM

, prep.
The sense of from may be expressed by the noun distance, or by the adjective distant, or by the participles, departing, removing to a distance. Thus it is one hundred miles from Boston to Hartford. He took his sword from his side. Light proceeds from the sun. Water issues from the earth in springs. Separate the coarse wool from the fine. Men have all sprung from Adam. Men often go from good to bad, and from bad to worse. The merit of an action depends on the principle from which it proceeds. Men judge of facts from personal knowledge, or from testimony. We should aim to judge from undeniable premises.
The sense of from is literal or figurative, but it is uniformly the same.
In certain phrases, generally or always elliptical, from is followed by certain adverbs, denoting place, region or position, indefinitely, no precise point being expressed; as,
From above, from the upper regions.
From afar, from a distance.
From beneath, from a place or region below.
From below, from a lower place.
From behind, from a place or position in the rear.
From far, from a distant place.
From high, from on high, from a high place, from an upper region, or from heaven.
From hence, from this place; but from is superfluous before hence. The phrase however is common.
From thence, from that place; from being superfluous.
From whence, from which place; from being superfluous.
From where, from which place.
From within, from the interior or inside.
From without, from the outside, from abroad.
From precedes another preposition, followed by its proper object or case.
From amidst, as from amidst the waves.
From among, as from among the trees.
From beneath, as from beneath my head.
From beyond, as from beyond the river.
From forth, as from forth his bridal bower. But this is an inverted order of the words; forth from his bower.
From off, as from off the mercy seat, that is, from the top or surface.
From out, as from out a window, that is, through an opening or from the inside.
From out of, is an ill combination of words and not to be used.
From under, as from under the bed, from under the ashes, that is, from beneath or the lower side.
From within, as from within the house, that is, from the inner part or interior.

Definition 2024

from

from

See also: fr.o.m. and from-

English

Alternative forms

Preposition

from

  1. With the source or provenance of or at.
    This wine comes from France.  I got a letter from my brother‎
    • 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher, chapterII:
      Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.
    • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 72-3:
      Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
  2. With the origin, starting point or initial reference of or at.
    He had books piled from floor to ceiling.  He left yesterday from Chicago.  Face away from the wall!‎
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
      The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.
  3. (mathematics, now uncommon) Denoting a subtraction operation.
    20 from 31 leaves 11.‎
  4. With the separation, exclusion or differentiation of.
    An umbrella protects from the sun.  He knows right from wrong.‎
    • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.

Synonyms

  • (with the source or provenance of or at): out of
  • (subtraction): take away

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: which · have · or · #27: from · this · but · all

Anagrams

Bislama

Etymology

English from

Preposition

from

  1. from
  2. Because of; on account of
    • 2008, Miriam Meyerhoff, Social lives in language--sociolinguistics and multilingual speech, ISBN 978-90-272-1863-6, page 344:
      Bang i wantem mi **** from mi ovaspen.
This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. Bislama is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.

Danish

Adjective

from

  1. pious; being religious in a quiet and serious way

Inflection

Inflection of from
Positive Comparative Superlative
Common singular from — —2
Neuter singular fromt — —2
Plural fromme — —2
Definite attributive1 fromme — —
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

References

Old English

Etymology

From Germanic. Cognate with Old High German fruma (German fromm), Middle Dutch vrōme (Dutch vroom), Old Norse framr.

Pronunciation

Adjective

from

  1. bold, firm, resolute

Declension

Plautdietsch

Adjective

from

  1. pious, godly

Derived terms

  • Fromheit

Swedish

Adjective

from (comparative frommare, superlative frommast)

  1. pious; being religious in a quiet and serious way
  2. charitable
    en from stiftelse
    a charitable foundation, a charity

Declension

Inflection of from
Indefinite/attributive Positive Comparative Superlative2
Common singular from frommare frommast
Neuter singular fromt frommare frommast
Plural fromma frommare frommast
Definite Positive Comparative Superlative
Masculine singular1 fromme frommare frommaste
All fromma frommare frommaste
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in an attributive role.

Synonyms

  • (pious): andaktsfull, gudfruktig
  • (charitable): allmännyttig, vägörande

Etymology

From Middle English from ‎(“from”), from Old English from, fram ‎(“forward, from”), from Proto-Germanic *fram ‎(“forward, from, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *pr-, *pro-, *perəm-, *prom- ‎(“forth, forward”), from *por- ‎(“forward, through”), *per-. Cognate with Old Saxon fram ‎(“from”) and Old High German fram ‎(“from”), Danish frem ‎(“forth, forward”), Danish fra ‎(“from”), Swedish fram ‎(“forth, forward”), Swedish från ‎(“from”), Icelandic fram ‎(“forward, on”), Icelandic frá ‎(“from”), Albanian pre, prej. More at fro.

Pronunciation

  • (stressed)
    • (UK) IPA(key): /frɒm/
    • (US) enPR: frŭm, IPA(key): /frʌm/; (emphasized) enPR: främ, IPA(key): /frɑm/
  • (unstressed) enPR: frəm, IPA(key): /frəm/
  • Rhymes: -ɒm, Rhymes: -ʌm
  • IPA(key): /from/

Similar Results