English

Verb

run afoul

1. (transitive, intransitive, nautical) To become entangled or in conflict with.
   • 1995, James Laurence Pelletier, Mariner's Employment Guide, page 514:

     Propellers can run afoul in heavy seaweed, and ships are said to be afoul when they collide.

   • 1857, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, Life, Adventures, and Travels in California‎, page 407:

     At last we hove in sight of the Pacific, and run afoul one of those villainous head winds which you know often set into the west end of the Straits.

Related terms

• run afoul of