fugitive vs on the lam

fugitive

adj
  • Fleeing or running away; escaping. 

  • Elusive or difficult to retain. 

  • Transient, fleeting or ephemeral. 

noun
  • 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. 

on the lam

adj
  • Running away, usually from the police; on the run. 

How often have the words fugitive and on the lam occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )