| 1. | any treacherous or unfair dealing, esp. involving murder: We feared that he had met with foul play. |
| 2. | unfair conduct in a game. |
| foul play n. Unfair or treacherous action, especially when involving violence. |
foul play
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?"