How to Use afoul of in a Sentence

afoul of

preposition
  • Texas has run afoul of that law twice over the past decade.
    — Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Those who run afoul of the rules may get barred from posting.
    — Melina Delkic, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2022
  • Clubs that do run afoul of the law won’t get citations right away.
    — Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel, 12 Jan. 2024
  • This is not the first time Jack Bauer has run afoul of the law.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Some J6ers have already run afoul of the law again.
    — Charles Bethea, New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2025
  • The latest arrests aren't the first time monks have run afoul of drug laws.
    — CBS News, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Now the 24-year-old singer seems to have run afoul of a rival drug gang.
    — Wire Services, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Maddox does not make vague threats toward people who run afoul of him.
    — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2025
  • That’s where Caviglia ran afoul of the rules, which surprised her.
    — Andrea Marks, Rolling Stone, 16 Sep. 2022
  • Some locations have run afoul of rules about hours, work permits and rest breaks in the past.
    — Alexandria Burris, IndyStar, 2 July 2025
  • The San Pasqual say that Poway is running afoul of both laws.
    — Lucas Robinson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2026
  • Those who run afoul of the state law could face criminal charges, including jail time.
    — Juan Ortega, Sun Sentinel, 11 June 2025
  • Here’s what some of them have said - or not said - since Combs has been accused of running afoul of the law.
    — Lisa Respers France, CNN Money, 16 May 2025
  • Amid this gloom, there were sparks of cheering news; not all artistic endeavors fell afoul of the strikes.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2023
  • He was released in 2003 for that crime but again ran afoul of the law soon after.
    — CBS News, 31 July 2023
  • But Jeffries was also careful not to run too far afoul of Bloomberg.
    — Jason Zengerle, New Yorker, 18 May 2026
  • The onlookers just watched the raptor try to pick off a duckling and run afoul of the mother duck.
    — Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 28 Feb. 2024
  • The Gerodemos family is no stranger to running afoul of the law.
    — Meredith Colias-Pete, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Running afoul of the law can carry criminal penalties in many states.
    — Sam Gringlas, NPR, 21 May 2025
  • The council says policies such as those enacted last year in eight states run afoul of those standards.
    — USA TODAY, 16 Feb. 2024
  • But city officials say the sheriff’s approach would run afoul of a contract.
    — Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel, 3 June 2026
  • And the council says policies like those enacted last year in eight states run afoul of those standards.
    — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 20 Feb. 2024
  • That’s at least in part from concern over running afoul of the 96-hour filing deadline.
    — Danielle Sheer, Forbes, 15 Jan. 2025
  • The plaintiffs say Penn has run afoul of the Civil Rights Act.
    — Tobi Raji, Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2023
  • Amazon said the wheel weights ran afoul of its rules for automotive products and have since been removed.
    — Faiz Siddiqui, Washington Post, 7 July 2023
  • That case finds Frank running afoul of a big bad played by Danny Huston.
    — Randall Colburn, EW.com, 16 June 2025
  • But those who seek to run afoul of Medicare/Medicaid do so at their own peril.
    — Jeff Gorke, Forbes, 16 July 2023
  • The unions assert these limits on employees’ speech run afoul of state and federal laws.
    — William Melhado, Sacramento Bee, 26 Feb. 2025
  • But the measure raised questions about how much the frame could broach over the state name or sticker before running afoul of the law.
    — Jim Turner, Sun Sentinel, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Musk could fall afoul of federal laws That doesn’t mean Musk is entirely in the clear.
    — Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'afoul of.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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