The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Fugitive \Fu"gi*tive\, n.
   1. One who flees from pursuit, danger, restraint, service,
      duty, etc.; a deserter; as, a fugitive from justice.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Something hard to be caught or detained.
      [1913 Webster]

            Or Catch that airy fugitive called wit. --Harte.
      [1913 Webster]

   Fugitive from justice (Law), one who, having committed a
      crime in one jurisdiction, flees or escapes into another
      to avoid punishment.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Fugitive \Fu"gi*tive\, a. [OE. fugitif, F. fugitif, fr. L.
   fugitivus, fr. fugere to flee. See Bow to bend, and cf.
   Feverfew.]
   1. Fleeing from pursuit, danger, restraint, etc., escaping,
      from service, duty etc.; as, a fugitive solder; a fugitive
      slave; a fugitive debtor.
      [1913 Webster]

            The fugitive Parthians follow.        --Shak.
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            Can a fugitive daughter enjoy herself while her
            parents are in tear?                  --Richardson
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            A libellous pamphlet of a fugitive physician. --Sir
                                                  H. Wotton.
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   2. Not fixed; not durable; liable to disappear or fall away;
      volatile; uncertain; evanescent; liable to fade; --
      applied to material and immaterial things; as, fugitive
      colors; a fugitive idea.
      [1913 Webster]

            The me more tender and fugitive parts, the leaves .
            . . of vegatables.                    --Woodward.
      [1913 Webster]

   Fugitive compositions, Such as are short and occasional,
      and so published that they quickly escape notice.

   Syn: Fleeting; unstable; wandering; uncertain; volatile;
        fugacious; fleeing; evanescent.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

fugitive
    adj 1: lasting for a markedly brief time; "a fleeting glance";
           "fugitive hours"; "rapid momentaneous association of
           things that meet and pass"; "a momentary glimpse" [syn:
           fleeting, fugitive, momentaneous, momentary]
    n 1: someone who flees from an uncongenial situation; "fugitives
         from the sweatshops" [syn: fugitive, runaway, fleer]
    2: someone who is sought by law officers; someone trying to
       elude justice [syn: fugitive, fugitive from justice]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

135 Moby Thesaurus words for "fugitive":
   DP, Judas, absconder, at large, betrayer, bolter, brief, brittle,
   capricious, changeable, circumforaneous, convict, corruptible,
   criminal, crook, deceiver, deciduous, deserter, desperado,
   desperate criminal, disappearing, discursive, disengaged,
   displaced person, dissolving, divagatory, double-dealer, drifting,
   dying, eloper, emigre, ephemeral, errant, escape artist, escaped,
   escapee, escaper, escapist, evacuee, evanescent, evaporating,
   fading, felon, fickle, fled, fleeing, fleer, fleeting, flitting,
   floating, flown, fly-by-night, flying, footloose,
   footloose and fancy-free, fragile, frail, free, fugacious, gadding,
   gallows bird, gangster, gaolbird, gypsy-like, gypsyish, hot,
   impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, in flight, inconstant,
   insubstantial, jailbird, landloping, lawbreaker, loose, meandering,
   melting, migrational, migratory, mobster, momentary, mortal,
   mutable, nomad, nomadic, nondurable, nonpermanent, on the lam,
   on the loose, out of, outlaw, passing, perishable, public enemy,
   quisling, racketeer, rambling, ranging, refugee, roaming, roving,
   runagate, runaway, running away, scofflaw, scot-free, shifting,
   short-lived, skedaddler, stateless person, straggling, straying,
   strolling, swindler, temporal, temporary, thief, thug, traipsing,
   traitor, transient, transitive, transitory, transmigratory,
   two-timer, undurable, unenduring, unstable, vagabond, vagrant,
   vanishing, volatile, wandering, well out of



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Fugitive
   Gen. 4:12, 14, a rover or wanderer (Heb. n'a); Judg. 12:4, a
   refugee, one who has escaped (Heb. palit); 2 Kings 25:11, a
   deserter, one who has fallen away to the enemy (Heb. nophel);
   Ezek. 17:21, one who has broken away in flight (Heb. mibrah);
   Isa. 15:5; 43:14, a breaker away, a fugitive (Heb. beriah), one
   who flees away.


Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

FUGITIVE. A runaway, one who is at liberty, and endeavors, by, going away,
to escape.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

FUGITIVE, FROM JUSTICE, crim. law. One who, having committed a crime within
a jurisdiction, goes into another in order to evade the law, and avoid its
punishment.
     2. By the Constitution of the United States, art. 4, s. 2, it is
provided, that "a person charged in any state with treason, felony or other
crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall, on
demand of the executive authority of the same state from which he fled, be
delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime."
The act of thus delivering up a prisoner, is, by the law of nations, called
extradition. (q.v.)
     3. Different opinions are entertained in relation to the duty of a
nation, by the law of nations, independently of any treaty stipulations, to
surrender fugitives from justice when' properly demanded. Vide 1 Kent, Com.
36; 4 John. C. R. 106; 1 Amer. Jurist, 297; 10 Serg. & Rawle, 125; 3 Story,
Com. Const. United States, Sec. 1801; 9 Wend. R. 218; 2 John. R. 479; 6
Binn. R. 617; 4 Johns. Ch. R. 113; 22 Am. Jur. 351: 24 Am. Jur. 226; 14 Pet.
R. 540; 2 Caines, R. 213.
     4. Before the executive of the state can be called upon to deliver an
individual, it must appear, first, that a proper and formal requisition of
another governor has been made; secondly, that the requisition was founded
upon an affidavit that the crime was committed by the person charged, or
such other evidence of that fact as may be sufficient; thirdly, that the
person against whom it is directed, is a fugitive from justice. 6 Law
Report, 57.