Wiktionary
vb. (context transitive intransitive nautical English) To become entangled or in conflict with.
WordNet
v. go against, as of rules and laws; "He ran afould of the law"; "This behavior conflicts with our rules" [syn: conflict, infringe, contravene]
Usage examples of "run afoul".
The jeep carrier outfit of Ziggy Sprague had run afoul of the whole damned Jap battle line.
It was my fault that she had run afoul of the Halloweeners, and it was my duty to get her to safety.
I've run afoul of Radburn and his men before, so you have more of my sympathy than he's likely to get.
When he changed others, that fixed his own presence, lest he run afoul of paradox.
We wouldn't have intruded on you if we hadn't run afoul of Fracto.
Ive run afoul of Radburn and his men before, so you have more of my sympathy than hes likely to get.
And if you run afoul of other Federation offices, or Vulcan officials, for that matter--we never even had this conversation.
To a man, they wore the red badges of Amefel, having no wish to run afoul of their own watchers in the hills.