fugitive

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English futityve, fugitife, fugitif, from Old French fugitif, from Latin fugitīvus.

Noun

fugitive (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.
    • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:
      “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—!”
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English fugitive, fugityve, fugityf, fugitife, fugytif, fugitif, from Old French fugitif, from Latin fugitīvus.

Adjective

fugitive (comparative more fugitive, superlative most fugitive)

  1. fleeing or running away
  2. transient, fleeting or ephemeral
  3. elusive or difficult to retain
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fy.ʒi.tiv/
  • Rhymes: -iv
  • Homophone: fugitives

Noun

fugitive f (plural fugitives, masculine fugitif)

  1. female equivalent of fugitif; a female fugitive

Further reading

Latin

Adjective

fugitīve

  1. vocative masculine singular of fugitīvus
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