afoul

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., Two Years Before the Mast, New York: Harper & Bros., Chapter 15, p. 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,

     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, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 29,

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

     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, Dubin’s Lives, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, Chapter Two, p. 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 and Jerry Pournelle, The Gripping Hand, New York: Pocket Books, 1994, Part 1, Chapter 3, p. 28,

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

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

• run afoul
• run afoul of

• foully

• afoul at OneLook Dictionary Search
• afoul in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911