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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
afoul
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
run
▪ The bill signed by Leavitt attempts to ban gay student groups without running afoul of this statute.
▪ Here I simply introduce them to you and describe how Iberian managers ran afoul of them. 1.
▪ Burgess' illegal use of alcohol ran afoul of the code, a point the righteous Karnaugh was quite eager to make.
▪ Two men died and two boys were seriously injured as vehicles ran afoul of washed-out roads.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Burgess' illegal use of alcohol ran afoul of the code, a point the righteous Karnaugh was quite eager to make.
▪ The bill signed by Leavitt attempts to ban gay student groups without running afoul of this statute.
▪ Two men died and two boys were seriously injured as vehicles ran afoul of washed-out roads.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Afoul

Afoul \A*foul"\, adv. & a. [Pref. a- + foul.] In collision; entangled.
--Totten.

To run afoul of, to run against or come into collision with, especially so as to become entangled or to cause injury.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
afoul

1809, originally nautical, "in collision or entanglement," from a- (1) + foul (adj.). From 1833 in general sense of "in violent or hostile conflict," mainly in phrases such as run afoul of.

Wiktionary
afoul

adv. In a state of entanglement or conflict with.

WordNet
afoul

adj. especially of a ship's lines etc; "with its sails afoul"; "a foul anchor" [syn: afoul(ip), foul, fouled]

Usage examples of "afoul".

Others had more exotic rags and a more foreign look: jaunty street-thieves of Dinander, or wealthless travelers run afoul of municipal authority.

His most recent triumph had been the development of the infected handkerchief that the CIA mailed to General Abdul Karim al-Kassem, the Iraq military strongman who had fallen afoul of the wonks who masterminded American foreign policy.

St Cloud picked up the strands of his evidence: he cited folk tale, legend, balladry, the chronicle of a foreign prince who had fallen in love with King Martin Swordsmaster and run afoul of his wizard.

They are Disserl, Vasker, Pelasias and Archimbaust: at one time wizards of repute until they too ran afoul of a certain prankster magician.

Amon had run afoul of a space-debris storm and the damage had required a replating of half his nose.

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that a warrantless search of an impounded motor vehicle does not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment.

I encountered the ogres of the Ogre Fen, then ran afoul of Fracto and got washed into the Water Wing, where Cyrus rescued us.

Eventually, this fragment would run afoul of one of those others, and its orbit would ratchet upward or downward.

You were on a spaceship blasting for Mercury, on a mission to save the Queendom, and you ran afoul of some stray collapsium.

Even a high-ranking priest of Tempus, traveling with a large mounted and well-armed bodyguard, had gone missing somewhere along the wooded road west of Starmantle, and was thought to have fallen afoul of the mysterious slayer.

Until that happy day arrived there was nothing he could do but keep up appearances, feed the chimera of fragile morale, and try not to run afoul of an officer in an especially sour mood.

She was conventionally pious, but her piety ran afoul of her practicality, which told her that here was an opportunity to get what she wanted rather than waiting forever until the Pope was induced to advance her to some larger nunnery.

Perhaps this was some Dark lord who had fallen afoul of one of his own kind and ended so because his knowledge of the Power was less than that of his enemy.

While striving against injustice I ran afoul of an evil magician who sent me north to die.

While Jeremy dug the lower end of a pole into the bottom of the channel and strained his wiry weight against the upper end, doing his best to steer, keeping the catamaran from running afoul again on reeds and stumps, the girl went back into the deckhouse to check on the condition of the man.