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.

It is a dramatic turnaround for a sector that crashed to 48,000 tonnes in 2008 in the wake of a botched government land reform programme that led to the seizure of hundreds of commercial farms.

From Barron's • May 15, 2026

Apple’s AI missteps, including a botched rollout of a smarter version of the Siri voice assistant, peeved investors last year.

From MarketWatch • May 8, 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

It was a well-known fact that Ambrose had botched the arithmetic portion of his admissions last term.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

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