botched

American

[bocht] / bɒtʃt /

adjective

spoiled by poor or clumsy work; bungled.

The teachers are up in arms about the botched rollout of the new standards, which caused unnecessary confusion and stress for them and their students.

verb

the simple past tense and past participle of botch.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

botchedly

adverb

Etymology

Origin of botched

botch ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

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.

Stilwell, who refrains from sharing his first name, operates on Catalina Island, a dumping ground for officers who’ve either botched cases or run afoul of their superiors.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

Victoria’s Secret, Einhorn says, has been beaten up among a “woke” cultural backlash, botched acquisition, and tariffs.

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

Fleeing a botched con and the threat of wartime violence, 29-year-old Ulises Linares escapes 1943 Mexico City for the small town of Puerco Ahogado in Veracruz.

From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2026

What is more baffling than the botched decision-making at the time is that officials have been going through what happened behind closed doors for months.

From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026

Too late, I realized my misstep—Anna May had wanted to use my arrival as an excuse to end the interview, and I’d botched that for her.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023