botch

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“
"But the worst botch is their waiting till we had just passed the Arizona line.

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To ruin through clumsiness.
  2. transitive verb To make or perform clumsily; bungle.
  3. transitive verb To repair or mend clumsily.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • "The most important thing is it's not really going to mean anything if we go into the Big Ten Tournament and just kind of botch it," Karel said. —  Badger Herald: News Updates
  • It was also, by common consent, the worst reshuffle of the Blair years, a terrible botch which damaged his reputation. —  Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
  • But I didn't think Obama would botch it so badly as to put his near 70-percent approval rating in peril so quickly. —  The Corner
  • So if you think they really are gonna botch it up and kill us all heres some good advice from gizmodo after it was announced the actual test won't happen for another two months you can think about it as another extension to your life. —  Safat: The KuwaitBlogs' Aggregator
  • Their 2007 song "Thou Shalt Always Kill" was featured in this previous Boing Boing tv episode, and their band's name -- "Scroobius Pip" -- is an intentional botch of the Edward Lear poem, —  Boing Boing
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This word has been looked up 112 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

botch:   botched
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English bocchen, to mend.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English botche, bocche, from Old French boche, a botch, sore, variant of boce, a botch, swelling, later modern F. bosse, English boss: see boss. Cf. Old Dutch butse, a boil, swelling, from butsen, Dutch botsen, strike, beat, akin to Old High German bōzan = English beat. Cf. botch.
  2. Also English dial. or colloq. bodge, q. v.; from Middle English bocchen, repair, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen, repair, patch, same word as butsen, Dutch botsen, strike, beat, knock together, akin to Old High German bōzan, beat, = English beat. Cf. botch and boss.
  3. from botch, v.
 

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/bɑtʃ/
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