adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   especially of a ship's lines etc wordnet

Adverb

1. 1
   In a state of collision or entanglement. archaic

   "The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul."

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

   "He had a knack for running afoul of the law."

Synonyms

All synonyms

foulfouledfouled

Example

More examples

"And now I will tell how it came about that Robin Hood fell afoul of the law."

Etymology

From a- + foul.

Related phrases

run afoulrun afoul of

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.