(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.