botch
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bɒt͡ʃ/
- (General American) IPA(key): /bɑt͡ʃ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒtʃ
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English bocchen (“to mend”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old English bōtettan (“to improve; cure; remedy; repair”), or from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen (“to repair; patch”), related to beat.
VerbEdit
botch (third-person singular simple present botches, present participle botching, simple past and past participle botched)
- (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.
- To do something without skill, without care, or clumsily.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- To repair or mend clumsily.
- Synonyms: bodge; see also Thesaurus:kludge
TranslationsEdit
to perform (a task) in an unacceptable or incompetent manner
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to do something without skill, without care, or clumsily
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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NounEdit
botch (plural botches)
- An action, job, or task that has been performed very badly; a ruined, defective, or clumsy piece of work.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i], page 140, column 2:
- That I require a cleareneſſe; and with him; / To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke:
- A patch put on, or a part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner.
- A mistake that is very stupid or embarrassing.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- A messy, disorderly or confusing combination; conglomeration; hodgepodge.
- (archaic) One who makes a mess of something.
- Synonym: bungler
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
- 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-bye.
TranslationsEdit
An action, job, or task that has been performed very badly
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a ruined, defective, or clumsy piece of work; mess; bungle
a mistake that is very stupid or embarrassing
Related termsEdit
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English botche, from Anglo-Norman boche, from Late Latin bocia (“boss”).
NounEdit
botch (plural botches)
- (obsolete) A tumour or other malignant swelling.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, line 1071:
- Botches and blaines muſt all his fleſh imboſs,
- A case or outbreak of boils or sores.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 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.