afoul

From a- +‎ foul.

• IPA^(key): /əˈfaʊl/
• Rhymes: -aʊl

afoul (comparative more afoul, superlative most afoul)

1. (archaic, principally nautical) In a state of collision or entanglement.

   The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul.

   • 1840, Richard Henry Dana Jr., chapter 15, in Two Years Before the Mast‎^[1], New York: Harper & Bros., page 137:

     After paying out chain, we swung clear, but our anchors were no doubt afoul of hers.

   • 1849, William F. Lynch, The Naval Officer, Chapter 2, in Graham’s Magazine, Volume 34, Number 3, March 1849,^[2]

     The atmosphere was soon thick and stifling, and the crews were working their guns with the energy of desperation, when a severe concussion, followed by a harsh and grating sound, told that the ships were afoul.

2. (with of) In a state of entanglement or conflict (with).

   He had a knack for running afoul of the law.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 20”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     What the devil’s the matter with me? I don’t stand right on my legs. Coming afoul of that old man has a sort of turned me wrong side out.

   • 1957 December 15, “Still in Business”, in Time:

     A hemispheric axiom has it that when a dictator falls afoul of Washington, his opponents are emboldened to try to topple him.

   • 1979, Bernard Malamud, chapter 2, in Dubin’s Lives‎^[3], New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, page 79:

     Kings came to hear [Vivaldi’s] concerts but in the end he ran afoul of the Pope’s nuncio and fell out of favor, presumably for neglecting to say Mass […]

   • 1993, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, The Gripping Hand‎^[4], New York: Pocket Books, published 1994, Part 1, Chapter 3, p. 28:

     He committed acts which put him afoul of Empire law, details classified, twenty-six years ago.

   • 2023 May 27, Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, “Elon Musk pulled Twitter from the EU's anti-disinformation agreement and continues to troll with alt-right memes and dogwhistles. It could be a sign he'll close the site to Europe completely”, in Business Insider‎^[5]:

     Such posts, and more extreme examples of hate speech that spiked on the platform since his takeover, could run afoul of the EU's framework for combating racism and xenophobia, landing Twitter — and Musk himself — in hot water with the European Commission.

In contemporary English, afoul is mainly used in the phrases fall afoul (of) and run afoul (of).

• run afoul
• run afoul of

• foully

• “afoul”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “afoul”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• AFOLU