How to use afoul in a sentence
11 example sentences · adverb
Afoul means in a state of collision or entanglement. Example: “The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul.”
Examples of afoul by meaning
adverbIn a state of collision or entanglement.
- The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul.
adverbIn a state of entanglement or conflict (with).
- He had a knack for running afoul of the law.
- A hemispheric axiom has it that when a dictator falls afoul of Washington, his opponents are emboldened to try to topple him.1957 December 15, “Still in Business”, in Time
- He committed acts which put him afoul of Empire law, details classified, twenty-six years ago.1993, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, The Gripping Hand, New York: Pocket Books, published 1994, Part 1, Chapter 3, p. 28
More sentences with afoul
- When quoting others, take care not to run afoul of copyright rules.From the entry run afoul of
- Propellers can run afoul in heavy seaweed, and ships are said to be afoul when they collide.1995, James Laurence Pelletier, Mariner's Employment Guide, page 514. From the entry run afoul
- But these designations appear to run afoul of our earlier concerns about the individuative impotence of dummy sortals.2008 January 8, John E. Sarnecki, “Sortals for Dummies”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 2, →DOI. From the entry individuative
- Facebook ran afoul of Apple because it used this system to distribute its data-collection app to consumers outside the company, which isn’t allowed.2019 January 31, Ian Bogost, “Apple’s Empty Grandstanding About Privacy”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 02 Feb 2019. From the entry run afoul of
- They lose time when their small control ship is damaged, and the raider battleship runs afoul of an American naval vessel that is testing a new supertorpedo.1990, Everett Franklin Bleiler, Science-Fiction, the Early Years, Kent State University Press, page 506. From the entry supertorpedo
- Bligh, ran afoul of the law when a policeman charged Culp with failure to give full time and attention to driving, because he was tickling Capt.1965 January 24, “Bird costs cabbie $10”, in The Hartford Courant, daily edition, number CXXVIII, Hartford, Conn.: The Hartford Courant…. From the entry hacker
- But China’s leadership wants to expand assistance for Russia without running afoul of Western sanctions and has set limits on what it will do, according to Chinese and U.S. officials.2022 June 2, Cate Cadell, Ellen Nakashima, “Beijing chafes at Moscow’s requests for support, Chinese officials say”, in The Washington…. From the entry U.S.
Meaning of afoul
- adverb In a state of collision or entanglement.
- adverb In a state of entanglement or conflict (with).
Questions about afoul in a sentence
- How do you use afoul in a sentence?
- Afoul is used as an adverb. For example: “The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul.”
- What is a short sentence with afoul?
- “The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul.”
- What does afoul mean?
- Afoul means in a state of collision or entanglement.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: afoul (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use afoul in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/afoul. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.