Fugitive

a. and sb. Forms: 4–6 fugit-, fugyt-, -if(e, -yf(e, -yve, (5 fegetyff), 6– fugitive. [a. F. fugitif, fugitive, ad. L. fugitīvus, f. fugit- ppl. stem of fugĕre to flee.]

  A.  adj. (Formerly sometimes with inflected plural, esp. in legal phrases after AF.)

  1.  Apt or tending to flee; given to, or in the act of, running away.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. i. 7.

1625.  K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, III. xv. 200. Hee himselfe was not much pleased with this fugitive course, because he knew it to be a very vsuall remedy, and that there was almost no History of Louers, in which a woman did not flye with her Husband.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Pleas. Epis., Wks. 1730, I. 110. Let him endeavour, by the melody of his rhimes (and what can withstand them?) to call back our fugitive Mercers from Covent-garden to Ludgate-hill and Pater-noster row.

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 58.

  fig.  1627–77.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xx. 87. Fugitive Divines, that like cowards … run away from their Text.

1644.  Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 45. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister’d vertue, unexercis’d and unbreath’d, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

  b.  That has taken flight, esp. from duty, an enemy, justice, or a master. † Also, of a debtor: Intending flight.

1467.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 376. That no citezein be attached by his body as fugityf.

1495.  Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 48. § 2. Catalles of felons fugitif.

1527.  R. Thorne, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 255. That none should receiue the others subiects fugitiues.

1535.  Coverdale, Judg. xii. 5. Now whan one of y^e fugityue Ephraites dyd saye [etc.].

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 139. If it be my lucke to recouer the fugitiue fellowe [a slave], I wil thinke mee selfe, to haue receiued an exceeding great pleasure.

1597.  Skene, De Verb. Sign., 120. Malefactoures quha are fugitive fra the law.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXIV. xxx. (1609), 530. There were scourged and beheaded of fugitive traitours, to the number of two thousand.

1613.  Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 78. In London, if the debtor be fugitive, that the creditor before the day of paiment may arrest him to find better suertie.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 16. The wrauth Of stern Achilles on his Foe pursu’d Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa, III. xxxi. 168. To countenance a fugitive daughter, in opposition to her parents.

1753.  Glover, Boadicea, I. i. Come from your hills, ye fugitive remains Of shattered cohorts.

1796.  H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature (1799), III. 98–9. ‘We come,’ replied Virginia, ‘from the Black River, whither we went this morning to implore the pardon of a poor fugitive negress, to whom I likewise gave the family breakfast, for she was just perishing with hunger; and here, the black run-aways have carried us home again.’

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 224. The fugitive Englishry found in England … munificent relief.

1880.  E. Kirke, Garfield, 19/3. This was the first instance in which a Union officer refused to return a fugitive slave.

  fig.  1551.  Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (Arb.), 56. By what crafte … the kynge maye … drawe to him againe fugitiue Naples.

1704.  Addr. Glamorgan, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4064/6. For him it was reserved to reduce fugitive Victory to her former Mistriss’s Land.

  † c.  Of a substance (e.g., the metal mercury): Escaping from or eluding the grasp, slippery. Obs.^–1

c. 1485.  Digby Myst. (1882), III. 318. Þe fegetyff mercury [perteynyng] on-to mercuryus.

  † 2.  Driven out, banished, exiled. Const. from, of.

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, I. 146. That first came thorgh his destanee ffugityfe of Troy Contree In Italye.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, I. i. 4. The man … that fugitive By fait to Itale coyme.

1549.  Compl. Scot., ix. 81. In his last days he vas fugitiue fra al cuntreis, and for melancolye he poysonnit hym self.

c. 1560.  R. Morice, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 25. I became fugityve frome myn awne house.

1598.  Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., 34. The Armenians … receiued the fugitiue Vonones.

  3.  Moving from place to place; flitting, shifting, vagabond. Also fig. Fickle.

1481.  Caxton, Godfrey, cxxxi. 195, heading. How guyllem de grateuylle and his felaws fugytyfs cam in to Allexandryee the lasse. Ibid. (1490), Eneydos, ii. 16. This noble companye troian, somtyme in reste and now vacabonde and fugytyf by the feeldes dardanike.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 266/2. The Pictavians … fugitiue and unstable.

1615.  J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., 277. His helpe extends farre and neere to fugitive Raga-muffians.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., I. iii. I. ii. (1651), 185. Restless … fickle, fugitive, they may not abide to tarrie in one place long.

1662.  R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 114. 198. I pity thy fugitive mind, and pray for thee, when I see thee hunt from one man to another, and from one Medicine unto another, which is indeed the harbinger of death.

1883.  Macfadyen, in Congreg. Year Bk., 72. Fugitive preachers make fugitive congregations.

1893.  Daily News, 26 April, 2/3. With fugitive securities, which move between London and foreign stock markets.

  4.  a. Of immaterial things: Evanescent, fleeting, of short duration.

c. 1510.  Barclay, The Mirrour of Good Manners (1570), B iv.

1635.  R. Bolton, Comf. Affl. Consc., v. 127. Fugitive follies and fading pleasures.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 109. In Youth alone, unhappy Mortals live; But, ah! the mighty Bliss is fugitive.

1743.  R. Blair, Grave, 568. Bless’d as the pleasing dreams of holy men; But fugitive like those.

1816.  L. Hunt, Rimini, iv. 7. The woe was earthly, fugitive, is past.

1863.  Mary Howitt, F. Bremer’s Greece, I. vii. 162. A fugitive gleam lit up the Vales of Athens and Sparta, and the beautiful islands of the Cyclades.

1877.  Dowden, Shaks. Prim., iv. 41. The latter—the weak endings—are more fugitive and evanescent in character, including such words as and, for, from, it, in, of, or.

  b.  Of impressions, colors, etc.: Quickly fading or becoming effaced. Less correctly of material substances: Perishable.

1678.  R. R[ussell], Geber, I. v. 12. For the Fire elevates and consumes every Fugitive and inflammable Substance.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, vi. (1723), 296. The more tender and fugitive Parts, as the Leaves of many of the more sturdy and vigorous Vegetables, Shrubs, and Trees, suffer the same Fate, and fall off for want of the Supply from beneath.

1822.  Imison, Elements of Science and Art, II. 188. The colour is extremely fugitive.

1842.  Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 81. The materials used in the fugitive dyes.

1879.  Farrar, St. Paul, I. 574, note. We cannot be surprised that, amid the disorders of the times, letters written on fugitive materials should have perished, especially as many of them may have been wholly undoctrinal.

1879.  Print. Trades Jrnl., No. 26. 30. Cerise, like most aniline colors, is fugitive.

  c.  Of a chemical substance: Volatile. rare.

1666.  Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual., 72. Quicksilver, for instance, may be turn’d into a red Powder for a Fusible and Malleable Body, or a Fugitive Smoak, and disguis’d I know not how many other wayes, and yet remain true and recoverable Mercury. Ibid. (1684–5), Min. Waters, 76. Some Spirituous and Fugitive Exhalations, that there arise with them, but presently vanish.

1850.  Daubeny, Atom. Th., x. (ed. 2), 324. A fixed carbonate … heated along with an ammoniacal compound of a less fugitive description.

  d.  Bot. Of flowers and petals: Soon falling.

1830.  Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 151. [Of the Rock-Rose Tribe] Petals 5, hypogynous, very fugitive. Ibid., 251. More remarkable for their beautiful fugitive flowers than for their utility.

  5.  Of a literary composition (occas. of a writer): Concerned or dealing with subjects of passing interest; ephemeral, occasional.

1766.  C. Anstey, Bath Guide, ii. (1832), 15.

1820.  Byron, Blues, II. 95. You’re a fugitive writer, I think, sir, of rhymes?

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., p. vii. Various fugitive publications of the day.

1864.  Spectator, 9 April, 423. The greater part of periodical literature is meant to be, and ought to remain, fugitive.

  B.  sb.

  1.  One who flees or tries to escape from danger, an enemy, justice, or an owner. Cf. A. 1. Occas. one who intends flight. To declare a person a fugitive (Sc. Law): to pronounce sentence of FUGITATION upon.

1382.  Wyclif, Num. xxxv. 11. Fugityues that not wilnyng sheeden blood.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), vi. 66. Men resceyved there all manere of Fugityfes of other places.

1467.  Eng. Gilds, 405. Though it so be the seid fugitif fynd suerte to answer to the accion comencyd ayenst hym.

1489.  Caxton, Faytes of A., I. vii. 16. To fugityues vnneth or with grete payne cometh agayn the herte to fighte.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 128. Your clearke or Secretarie, hath plaide the fugitiue or runnagate.

1667–1708.  Termes de la Ley, 357. Fugitives Goods are the proper goods of him that flies upon felony, which, after the Flight lawfully found, do belong to the King. [The AF. version has fugitives biens, as if the word were an adj.; but the passage of Coke referred to (Rep. v. 109 b) has bona fugitivorum.]

1672.  Wilkins, Nat Relig., 252. That man (saith he [Antoninus]) is to be esteemed a fugitive and an apostate, who runs away from his master.

1752.  J. Louthian, Form of Process (ed. 2), 147. The Persons contained in the Criminal Letters, and formerly declared Fugitives.

1845.  S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. 473. The approach of the Turks filled the town with crowds of fugitives.

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, I. 340.

  † b.  A deserter. Obs.

1553.  Brende, Q. Curtius, V. 94/1. When Alexander was come to Taba, which is the cheife Citie of Paratacene, it was there shewed him by fugitiues that came out of Darius camp, that he was fled with al spede into Bactria.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. ix. 22.

1611.  Bible, 2 Kings xxv. 11. Now the rest of the people that were left in the citie, and the fugitiues that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captaine of the guard cary away.

1659.  Pearson, Creed, iv. 419. As this Death [crucifixion] most dolorous and full of acerbity, so was it also most infamous and full of ignominy. The Romans themselves accounted it a servile punishment, and inflicted it upon their slaves and fugitives.

  c.  One who quits or is banished from his country; an exile, refugee.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. iii. 67. Who then, but English Henry, will be Lord, And thou be thrust out, like a Fugitiue?

1630.  R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 48. Rome … is the Seminary and Nursery of English Fugitives.

1692.  Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., M.’s Wks. 1738, I. 510. This is what that herd of Fugitives and Vagabonds hired you to write.

1788.  Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. xxxvi. 265. What is most memorable in the learning of the Saracens is, that it was brought by them (by the way of Spain) into Christendom, and excited a thirst for knowledge, and particularly a considerable application to medicine, chimistry, and natural philosophy, long before the Greek fugitives from Constantinople promoted a taste for eloquence and the belles letters.

1836.  W. Irving, Astoria, I. xxii. 232. Here may spring up new and mongrel races, like new formations in geology, the amalgamation of the ‘debris’ and ‘abrasions’ of former races, civilized and savage; the remains of broken and almost extinguished tribes; the descendants of wandering hunters and trappers; of fugitives from the Spanish and American frontiers; of adventurers and desperadoes of every class and country, yearly ejected from the bosom of society into the wilderness.

1855.  Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), I. II. i. 137. The fugitives from Rome were found in all parts of the world, and among these no doubt were almost all the more distinguished heathens.

  † d.  One that abandons a monastic life. Obs.^–1

1482.  Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 84. Religyous persons that were fugytyuys that is to sey that ranne oute of her order by the whiche they had bonde hem self to the seruice of god and after turnid ageyne to the world and gaue hem to wordely leuing, as a dogge yat turnith ageyn to his vomet.

  2.  One who shifts about or moves from place to place; a vagabond, wanderer. Applied also to the lower animals.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 747. If thou wert an honest Woman, thou wouldest not … run about the Country like a Fugitive.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. 239/1. Fugitive, or a Rangler, is a Hawk that rangleth and wandreth abroad, and will not be at command.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 159. When the Swarms … idly Stray, Restrain the wanton Fugitives.

  3.  Something fugitive; something fleeting, or that eludes the grasp. Obs. exc. with personification.

1683.  Pettus, Fleta Min., I. (1686), 242. They [light ores] cannot well be brought into compass, for they rise for the most part in the Water, and are fugitives.

1690.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 316. You would not exchange your inward consolation, for the return of all those external fugitives you once enjoyed.

a. 1774.  Harte, Vis. Death, Introd. 48. What Muse but his can Nature’s beauties hit, Or catch that airy fugitive, called wit.

1847.  Emerson, Poems, Ode to Beauty. Thou eternal fugitive, Hovering over all that live.

  Hence Fugitive v. (nonce-wd.) trans., to make fugitive, drive into exile; Fugitively adv. rare^–0, in a fugitive manner (Webster, 1864); Fugitivism, the condition of a fugitive; Fugitivity, the quality or state of being fugitive.

1843.  W. S. Landor, Lett., 16 April, in R. R. Madden, Life C’tess Blessington (ed. 2), II. 411. What fugitivities in this lower world of ours!

1864.  Greenshield, Ann. Lesmahagow, vi. 116. Her son Thomas was fugitived in the persecution.

1877.  D. M. Wallace, Russia, xxix. 468. This change in the position of the peasantry … naturally increased fugitivism and vagrancy.