Definition of "fugitive"

fugitive

/ˈfjuːd͡ʒɪtɪv/

noun
plural fugitives
1. A person who flees or escapes and travels secretly from place to place, and sometimes using disguises and aliases to conceal his/her identity, as to avoid law authorities in order to avoid an arrest or prosecution; or to avoid some other unwanted situation.
  Quotations
  “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, […] the speed-mad fugitives from the furies of ennui, the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!”
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
adjective
comparative more fugitive, superlative most fugitive
1. Fleeing or running away; escaping.
  Quotations
  I found afterwards that he was the chauffeur, who filled the gaps left by a succession of fugitive butlers.
  1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton
2. Transient, fleeting or ephemeral.
3. Elusive or difficult to retain.