run afoul

1. 1.

   go against, as of rules and laws

   “He ran afoul of the law”

   “This behavior conflicts with our rules”

   Synonymsconflictinfringecontravene

   Broadertransgress

Questions about run afoul

What does run afoul mean?

run afoul means "go against, as of rules and laws".

What is another word for run afoul?

Close synonyms include conflict, infringe, contravene. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is run afoul a common word?

run afoul is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.