See fall foul in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "falls foul",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "falling foul",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "fell foul",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "fallen foul",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "fall<,,fell,fallen> foul"
},
"expansion": "fall foul (third-person singular simple present falls foul, present participle falling foul, simple past fell foul, past participle fallen foul)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "45 55",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "48 52",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
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},
{
"_dis": "53 47",
"kind": "other",
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}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:",
"text": "If they be any ways offended, […]they fall foul.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book v:",
"text": "He was, literally speaking, drunk; which circumstance, together with his natural impetuosity, could produce no other effect than his running immediately up to his daughter, upon whom he fell foul with his tongue in the most inveterate manner [...]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To collide; to conflict with; to attack (+ on, of, upon)"
],
"id": "en-fall_foul-en-verb-d~JmJ9nW",
"links": [
[
"collide",
"collide"
],
[
"attack",
"attack"
],
[
"on",
"on"
],
[
"of",
"of"
],
[
"upon",
"upon"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, archaic) To collide; to conflict with; to attack (+ on, of, upon)"
],
"tags": [
"archaic",
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "45 55",
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],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2008, The Guardian, Media Monkey, 4 Aug 2008",
"text": "Sky News fell foul of its own woolly reporting on Tuesday, when it reported \"human remains\" had been found on Saddleworth Moor. Ever keen to spin a good yarn, they immediately linked the story to moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - only for the police to emerge seven hours later and announce that, after very careful inspection, they could confirm the carcass was not human …"
},
{
"ref": "March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "If Chelsea were to fall foul of profit and sustainability, they would be expected to cite unforeseen circumstances, much as some clubs have claimed Covid writedowns: their books would have been sound but for the pandemic.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 42:",
"text": "Passengers may find themselves in a catch-22 situation, unable to buy a ticket for any number of reasons, ranging from an out-of-order ticket vending machine to a lengthy queue to use one, and yet then fall foul of the penalty fare regime.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To be defeated or thwarted (by); to suffer (+ of)"
],
"id": "en-fall_foul-en-verb-NFaOazZ~",
"links": [
[
"thwarted",
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],
[
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],
[
"of",
"of"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To be defeated or thwarted (by); to suffer (+ of)"
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"audio": "en-au-fall foul.ogg",
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"word": "fall foul"
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{
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"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
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"forms": [
{
"form": "falls foul",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "falling foul",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "fell foul",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "fallen foul",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "fall<,,fell,fallen> foul"
},
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"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with archaic senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:",
"text": "If they be any ways offended, […]they fall foul.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book v:",
"text": "He was, literally speaking, drunk; which circumstance, together with his natural impetuosity, could produce no other effect than his running immediately up to his daughter, upon whom he fell foul with his tongue in the most inveterate manner [...]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To collide; to conflict with; to attack (+ on, of, upon)"
],
"links": [
[
"collide",
"collide"
],
[
"attack",
"attack"
],
[
"on",
"on"
],
[
"of",
"of"
],
[
"upon",
"upon"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, archaic) To collide; to conflict with; to attack (+ on, of, upon)"
],
"tags": [
"archaic",
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2008, The Guardian, Media Monkey, 4 Aug 2008",
"text": "Sky News fell foul of its own woolly reporting on Tuesday, when it reported \"human remains\" had been found on Saddleworth Moor. Ever keen to spin a good yarn, they immediately linked the story to moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - only for the police to emerge seven hours later and announce that, after very careful inspection, they could confirm the carcass was not human …"
},
{
"ref": "March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "If Chelsea were to fall foul of profit and sustainability, they would be expected to cite unforeseen circumstances, much as some clubs have claimed Covid writedowns: their books would have been sound but for the pandemic.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 42:",
"text": "Passengers may find themselves in a catch-22 situation, unable to buy a ticket for any number of reasons, ranging from an out-of-order ticket vending machine to a lengthy queue to use one, and yet then fall foul of the penalty fare regime.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To be defeated or thwarted (by); to suffer (+ of)"
],
"links": [
[
"thwarted",
"thwarted"
],
[
"suffer",
"suffer"
],
[
"of",
"of"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To be defeated or thwarted (by); to suffer (+ of)"
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
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"audio": "en-au-fall foul.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/35/En-au-fall_foul.ogg/En-au-fall_foul.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/En-au-fall_foul.ogg"
}
],
"word": "fall foul"
}
Download raw JSONL data for fall foul meaning in English (3.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (b81b832 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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