foul play

American  

noun

1. any treacherous or unfair dealing, especially involving murder.

   We feared that he had met with foul play.

2. unfair conduct in a game.

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foul play British  

noun

1. unfair or treacherous conduct esp with violence

2. a violation of the rules in a game or sport

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foul play Idioms  

1. Unfair or treacherous action, especially involving violence. For example, The police suspected he had met with foul play. This term originally was and still is applied to unfair conduct in a sport or game and was being used figuratively by the late 1500s. Shakespeare used it in The Tempest (1:2): “What foul play had we, that we came from thence?”

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Etymology

Origin of foul play

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foul play

On Saturday, Crystal Palace defender Axel Disasi was sent off for serious foul play in the 3-2 loss to Ipswich Town.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Panettiere died in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday and police said there were not "any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances".

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Police said a preliminary investigation had not indicated any signs of foul play.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Metropolitan Police found the 41-year-old dead at a south London address and stated there was no indication of foul play.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

They were running, all four of them, Cari shrieking foul play even though she’d pulled the same trick herself a hundred times.

From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez