fu·gi·tive

(fyo͞o′jĭ-tĭv)

adj.

a. Running away or fleeing, as from the law.

b. Of or relating to fugitives: "My brother ... was on the fugitive squad, tracking draft dodgers" (James Carroll).

a. Lasting only a short time; fleeting: "[His] house and burial place ... should be visited by all who profess even a fugitive interest in political economy" (John Kenneth Galbraith).

b. Difficult to comprehend or retain; elusive: fugitive solutions to the problem.

c. Given to change or disappearance; perishable: fugitive beauty; fugitive tint.

d. Of temporary interest: "Apart from juvenilia and fugitive verses, his poetic legacy consists of only some seventy poems" (Daniel Hoffman).

3. Wandering or tending to wander; vagabond: "We also chanced upon fugitive monks, penniless pilgrims and tradesmen" (Jeanne Marie Laskas).

1. A person who flees, especially from a legal process, persecution, or danger.

2. Something fleeting or ephemeral.

[Middle English fugitif, from Old French, from Latin fugitīvus, from fugitus, past participle of fugere, to flee.]

fu′gi·tive·ly adv.

fu′gi·tive·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive

A more common word than PUTATIVENESS having the same property is the similar FUGITIVENESS, which is found in many dictionaries.

COLLOQUY

(9) Palazzeschi indeed refashions the street as a poetic symbol of thrill and fugitiveness, and as the privileged stage for his verbal and childish clownerie.

Palazzeschi's "La passeggiata" and the Urban Miniatures of the Modern World

Subjectively, for both the physical and non-physical, events are considered the expression of invisible intensity-factors, on which depend their stability and persistence, or their fugitiveness and proclivities.

THE RELATION OF HABITUAL THOUGHT AND BEHAVIOR TO LANGUAGE

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