botch
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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botches,
present (3rd person singular)
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botched,
past participle, past
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botching
present participle
noun
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a clumsy or poor piece of work; bungle.
He made a complete botch of his first attempt at baking.
-
a clumsily added part or patch.
-
a disorderly or confused combination.
noun
-
a swelling on the skin; a boil.
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an eruptive disease.
verb
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to spoil through clumsiness or ineptitude
-
to repair badly or clumsily
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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botchsimple
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botchessimple
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have botchedperfect
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has botchedperfect
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am botchingprogressive
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are botchingprogressive
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is botchingprogressive
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have been botchingperfect progressive
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has been botchingperfect progressive
Past
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botchedsimple
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had botchedperfect
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was botchingprogressive
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were botchingprogressive
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had been botchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of botch1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English bocchen “to patch up”; perhaps to be identified with bocchen “to swell up, bulge” (verbal derivative of bocche botch 2 ), though sense development unclear
Origin of botch2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English bocche, botch(e), from Old North French boche, dialectal variant of Old French, Middle French boce boss 2
Explanation
If you botch something, you make a mess of it or you ruin it. If you totally botch your lines in the school play, you stammer and stutter your way through the whole thing. Interestingly, the word botch originally meant the opposite of what it means today. The Middle English word bocchen meant to mend or repair. As a noun botch means an embarrassing mistake or something that is done poorly, especially due to lack of skill. If they've never painted before, your friends working on set design might make a complete botch of the scenery for the play, which might involve repainting the whole thing.
Vocabulary lists containing botch
Awkward Moments
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Nothing But the Truth
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The Things They Carried
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Instead it managed to botch the new job even more so.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
McLaughlin also helped to botch ICE’s efforts to keep immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez locked up without bond.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2026
To not only botch this chance but also to do so without even scoring a touchdown?
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
He’ll botch a gig over his annoyance at not being allowed to call a stranger by a pet name she reserves for her closest friend.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2024
“We all bite off too much sooner or later. But some students don’t know when to spit their mouthful. They burn out. They quit, or botch their exams. Some crack.”
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
But even when Kiki botches a delivery by dropping a toy mid-air, sending it tumbling into a nearby forest, a bit of reciprocal effort solves the problem.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
The infinite variables in sports can quickly make many of the bets they are holding nearly worthless, whether it is because a player is severely injured or a team botches a crucial touchdown.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
In China, Xinhua news agency's website ran an article with the headline: "British Navy botches test: Missile crashes into the sea with a 'thud', nuclear submarine hovering underwater".
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2024
I’d rather cheer for a kooky blockbuster that’s all fiascos, like the midpoint Monty Python-esque sequence where the crew botches the resurrection and interrogation of craggy old corpses.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
If I attempt to select them I shall be tricked and bamboozled into purchasing mere daubs and botches.
From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various
In court earlier on Wednesday, Pike's lawyers secured a legal win by convincing a judge to order the state to preserve the broadest amount of evidence possible from the US death row inmate's botched execution.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
The botched execution has resulted in fresh scrutiny of the secretive supply chain for lethal injection drugs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
I think in some ways, this botched execution is emblematic of how everybody understands now what happens in that room, but the jurisprudence and the technologies have occluded that for most of us.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026
In the wake of Carruthers’ botched execution, a group of more than 40 doctors and nurses came down on the side of purity.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Treebaun progressed quickly through each student’s recap and repercussion track, and I watched a botched Kennedy assassination simulation, a Watergate mess, and a rather iffy situation involving Ben Franklin, but none of them were Elliot’s.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
But they can’t see what I remember when I hold it: cymbals timed correctly during the performance, a gratified nod from the conductor after weeks of botching it in rehearsal.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
To its many critics, the Ministry of Defence failed to spend well what money it got, botching procurement after procurement, delivering new equipment late and over budget.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
“Governments in developing economies are botching the job far too often, but not because industrial policy itself is the wrong choice,” wrote Gill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
Legal experts were stunned at what they said was the prosecution’s botching of the case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2024
A number of his colleagues quietly waited for the day when he would fall flat on his face by botching something important.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
