Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To carry out badly or ruin through ineptitude; botch. synonym: botch.
  • intransitive verb To work or act ineptly or inefficiently.
  • noun A clumsy or inept performance; a botch.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To work or act in a clumsy, awkward, or blundering manner.
  • To make or mend clumsily; botch; manage awkwardly or blunderingly; perform inefficiently.
  • noun A clumsy performance; a piece of awkward work; a botch.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A clumsy or awkward performance; a botch; a gross blunder.
  • transitive verb To make or mend clumsily; to manage awkwardly; to botch; -- sometimes with up.
  • intransitive verb To act or work in a clumsy, awkward manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A botched or incompetently handled situation.
  • verb To botch up, bumble or incompetently perform a task.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a mess of, destroy or ruin
  • verb spoil by behaving clumsily or foolishly
  • noun an embarrassing mistake

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse, akin to Swedish dialect bangla 'to work ineffectually', from Old Swedish bunga 'to strike'. Compare German Bengel 'cudgel; rude fellow', Middle High German bungen 'to hammer'.

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