What's the difference between afoul and befoul?

Afoul


Definition:

  • (adv. & a.) In collision; entangled.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He said similar “name and shame” legislation had run afoul of the first amendment and that the rule may be unconstitutional.
  • (2) But some legal experts believe government officials can’t stop all marriage to avoid wedding same-sex couples without running afoul of the constitution.
  • (3) The Justice Department argues that the law still runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act but now faces the higher threshold of proving intentional discrimination to prevail in court.
  • (4) Unfortunately, that assumption may be running afoul of, or fouling up, the way in which most investors construct their portfolios.
  • (5) Torture was rife; officials and entrepreneurs who had run afoul of Bo were targeted, their assets seized and redistributed.
  • (6) Governor Bush believes harnessing innovation and fostering technology can help us grow at 4% once again.” Clinton’s tough talk was not reserved just for Republicans – sounding ever the progressive, the former first lady also vowed to go after individuals and corporations on Wall Street that run afoul of the law.
  • (7) If there is one, we don’t want to run afoul of it.
  • (8) Critics have accused Watson of being a pirate or even eco-terrorist because of his aggressive exploits and he has run afoul of the powers that be before.
  • (9) The sorority runs afoul of new dean of students Cathy Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis, getting back to her horror roots) who forces Kappa to accept any pledges who apply or else they will lose their charter.
  • (10) Plans by supporters of marijuana legalisation for "smoke ins" in Vancouver were nixed by local health officials who said they fell afoul of cigarette smoking laws and a provision on the new regulations that only permit the use of marijuana in private.
  • (11) Romney has, throughout his presidential campaign, espoused positions that are to the right of the median American voter: he wants to cut taxes on the wealthy; he would fundamentally transform Medicare; he wants to repeal Obamacare fully; and his position on choice and immigration run afoul of women and Hispanic voters.
  • (12) He says that definition leaves out legally married same-sex couples, and runs afoul of a June supreme court ruling.
  • (13) Both Ferozi and Farnood spent time in Moscow in the 1980s, running businesses that occasionally ran afoul of the criminal underworld.
  • (14) Once Russia's largest portfolio investor, and one of President Vladimir Putin's biggest foreign fans, Browder appeared to have run afoul of the Kremlin after picking up stakes in some of the country's largest state-run companies.
  • (15) While the company has run afoul of US law for its lackadaisical approach to questions of real estate ownership, it has in Cuba an opportunity to start fresh with a government newly open to American businesses.
  • (16) Prime minister Ahmed Davutoglu, a key Erdogan ally, decried the chaos, which also included attacks on a number of offices belonging to newspapers that had fallen afoul of the AKP.
  • (17) They reviewed them several months ago, concluded that, in fact, there was nothing afoul in terms of the process that we had used.
  • (18) Although it is now legal under state law for anyone over 21 to possess up to one ounce of the drug, there is still no legal means to buy it, and officials were grappling with how to administer the new law without falling afoul of national legislation.
  • (19) To achieve this "single sign-on" the company needed to consolidate all its policies or risk running afoul of trade and privacy regulators.
  • (20) Indeed, these youths at risk most frequently may be identified and helped when they run afoul of the law and enter the judicial system.

Befoul


Definition:

  • (a.) To make foul; to soil.
  • (a.) To entangle or run against so as to impede motion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But there’s another set of rationalizations: we would never undertake such risky behavior; we would never live in such a neighborhood, work for such a company, visit such a fallen or disreputable establishment; we would never befoul ourselves with incautiousness as to almost welcome the violence.
  • (2) Variety called it “the ugliest gay-panic humour to befoul a studio release in recent memory” while the Guardian’s Alex Needham wrote “I suspect that in years to come, media studies students will watch this film and be astonished that such a negative portrayal of homosexuality persisted in the mainstream in 2015.” While the balanced treatment of sexuality in Hollywood is still considered be well behind that of both race and gender, recent moves in the industry have been perceived as a slow turning of the tide.
  • (3) The Russian Railways boss, Vladimir Yakunin, a close associate of Putin's and now placed on the US sanctions list, said the west wanted "to befoul everything" to do with Russia and thus criticised the Sochi games; while the influential defence analyst Sergei Karaganov complained about an "avalanche of lies" about Russia over Sochi.
  • (4) And it is the great polluter of the atmosphere , so befouled by our outpourings of greenhouse gases as to threaten the entire global climate system and – without serious and immediate evasive action – condem future generations to live on a hothouse Earth similar to that of 55 million years ago, when temperatures were 10 degrees warmer, and sea levels 80 metres higher.
  • (5) Where some saw an acid comedy of American mores, others detected something altogether more queasy: a befouled gallery of grotesques in which the paedophile comes touted as the most decent and sympathetic exhibit.
  • (6) Almost everywhere, beeping monitors alert visitors to the invisible foe that has befouled entire communities: radiation.

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