run afoul

present singular third person runs afoul · participle present running afoul · past ran afoul

1. intransitivetransitivenauticalTo become entangled or in conflict with.

   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

   1 more example

   At last we hove in sight of the Pacific, and run afoul one of those villainous head winds which you know often set into the west end of the Straits.

   1857, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, Life, Adventures, and Travels in California, page 407