run afoul of

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

run afoul of (third-person singular simple present runs afoul of, present participle running afoul of, simple past ran afoul of, past participle run afoul of)

1. (nautical) To become entangled in; to run aground on.
2. (idiomatic) To contravene.

   When quoting others, take care not to run afoul of copyright rules.

   • 2019 January 31, Ian Bogost, “Apple’s Empty Grandstanding About Privacy”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     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.