english
1
general::
Phrase(s): foul play
illegal activity; bad practices. • The police investigating the death suspect foul play. • Each student got an A on the test, and the teacher imagined it was the result of foul play.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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general::
noun criminal activity VERB + FOUL PLAY suspect | rule out The police have ruled out foul play in the case of his death. play that is against the rules ADJ. deliberate, serious VERB + FOUL PLAY be guilty of He was clearly guilty of foul play and deserved to be sent off.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
3
general::
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?"
American Heritage Idioms