fall foul of

idiom

: to get into trouble because of failing to do what is required by (the law, a rule, etc.)
After leaving school she fell foul of the law and spent time in jail.
companies that fall foul of labor laws

Examples of fall foul of in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
For financial firms that fall foul of the new rules, EU authorities will have the power to levy fines of up to 2% of their annual global revenues. Ryan Browne, CNBC, 8 Aug. 2024 The beverage maker isn’t the only one to fall foul of the apparent tax crackdown. Laura He, CNN, 21 June 2024 And because antitrust and privacy law have been blurring into each other in recent years—regulators have realized that market-dominating companies maintain their positions partly through the accumulation of data—this tactic arguably manages to fall foul of both the GDPR and the DMA. Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 17 June 2024 But after this week, Kate and William, the Prince of Wales, will be eager not to fall foul of the traditional media’s (not always infallible) rules on accuracy, Barnett said. Alexander Smith, NBC News, 13 Mar. 2024 See all Example Sentences for fall foul of 

Dictionary Entries Near fall foul of

Cite this Entry

“Fall foul of.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fall%20foul%20of. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on fall foul of

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!