botch Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun an embarrassing mistake
boo-boo; flub; blooper; blunder; foul-up; pratfall; boner; fuckup; bungle; bloomer.
verb make a mess of, destroy or ruin
muck up; foul up; blow; botch up; bollix; fumble; mishandle; bollocks; bumble; ball up; bobble; bollocks up; spoil; bollix up; fuck up; fluff; flub; bodge; muff; louse up; mess up; screw up; bungle.
- I botched the dinner and we had to eat out
- the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement

Same as Boss a stud. For senses 2 & 3 cf. D. botsen to beat, akin to E. beat.

plural Botches

A swelling on the skin; a large ulcerous affection; a boil; an eruptive disease. Obs. or Dial.
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss. Milton.
A patch put on, or a part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner.
Work done in a bungling manner; a clumsy performance; a piece of work, or a place in work, marred in the doing, or not properly finished; a bungle.
To leave no rubs nor botches in the work. Shak.

See Botch, n.

imperfect & past participle Botched present participle & verbal noun Botching

To mark with, or as with, botches.
Young Hylas, botched with stains. Garth.
To repair; to mend; esp. to patch in a clumsy or imperfect manner, as a garment; -- sometimes with up.
Sick bodies . . . to be kept and botched up for a time. Robynson (More's Utopia).
To put together unsuitably or unskillfully; to express or perform in a bungling manner; to spoil or mar, as by unskillful work.
For treason botched in rhyme will be thy bane. Dryden.