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

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.

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

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

A botched back surgery in 2008 made the pain worse.

From Salon • Apr. 24, 2026

Four people have been arrested during a dawn raid on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud following an investigation into the government's botched home insulation scheme.

From BBC • Apr. 22, 2026

Over an hour into a high-speed chase with the suspect, the sheriff’s department botched the deployment of a “grappler” net system intended to entangle the back wheels of the car to slow it down.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 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