botch

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botch

Wikipedia

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɒt͡ʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɑt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒtʃ

From Middle English bocchen (“to mend”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old English bōtettan (“to improve; cure; remedy; repair”), related to boot, or from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen (“to repair; patch”), related to beat. Doublet of bodge.

botch (third-person singular simple present botches, present participle botching, simple past and past participle botched)

1. (transitive) To perform (a task) in an unacceptable or incompetent manner; to make a mess of something

   Synonyms: ruin, bungle; see also Thesaurus:spoil

   A botched haircut seems to take forever to grow out.

2. To do something without skill, without care, or clumsily.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. To repair or mend clumsily.

   Synonyms: bodge; see also Thesaurus:kludge

botch (plural botches)

1. An action, job, or task that has been performed very badly; a ruined, defective, or clumsy piece of work.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 140, column 2:

     That I require a cleareneſſe; and with him; / To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke:

2. A patch put on, or a part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner.
3. A mistake that is very stupid or embarrassing.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

4. A messy, disorderly or confusing combination; a conglomeration; hodgepodge.
5. (archaic) One who makes a mess of something.

   Synonym: bungler

   • 1863, J Sheridan Le Fanu, “Æsculapius to the Rescue”, in The House by the Church-yard.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, , →OCLC, page 149:

     If it was the last word I ever spoke, Puddock, you're a good natured—he 's a gentleman, sir—and it was all my own fault; he warned me, he did, again' swallyin' a dhrop of it—remember what I'm saying, Doctor—'twas I that done it; I was always a botch, Puddock, an' a fool; and—and—gentlemen—good-by.

• bodge

• foul up
• mess up
• screw up

From Middle English botche, from Anglo-Norman boche, from Late Latin bocia (“boss”).

botch (plural botches)

1. (obsolete) A tumour or other malignant swelling.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, line 1071:

     Botches and blaines muſt all his fleſh imboſs,

2. A case or outbreak of boils or sores.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Deuteronomy 28:27:

     The Lord wil smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scabbe, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not bee healed.