Definition of "run afoul" [run afoul]

• To become entangled or in conflict with. (verb)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "Beyond Cyrene was Carthage, an aggressive power that had already run afoul of the king at Tyre."
• "A third had run afoul of a spasmo-tic, and convulsed."
• "On the national page, he found the brief item he was looking for: an unknown body had been located in Kiyosumi Gardens, presumably a yakuza or someone who had run afoul of the yakuza, given the gravity of the cuts that had killed him."