Separation from companion with old cat amid household work (9)
I believe the answer is:
dichotomy
'separation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'companion with old cat amid household work' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'companion' could be 'ch' (Companion of Honour) and 'ch' is located in the answer.
'old' could be 'o' (abbreviation) and 'o' is found within the answer.
'cat' could be 'tom' (a tom is a male cat) and 'tom' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'diy' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'from' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for dichotomy that I've seen is " Division into two parts or kinds".)