# botch
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /bɒt͡ʃ/
* (General American) IPA: /bɑt͡ʃ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒtʃ

### Etymology 1

From Middle English bocchen (“to mend”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old English bōtettan (“to improve; cure; remedy; repair”), related to boot, or from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen (“to repair; patch”), related to beat. Doublet of bodge.

#### Verb

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

##### Derived terms

* blotch
* botcher
* botchery
* botch up
* botchwork
* botchy

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Noun

botch (plural botches)
* An action, job, or task that has been performed very badly; a ruined, defective, or clumsy piece of work.
** c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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; a conglomeration; hodgepodge.
* (archaic) One who makes a mess of something.
    Synonym: bungler
** 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “Æsculapius to the Rescue”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 149: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-by.

##### Derived terms

* botch job
* botch-up

##### Translations
#### Related terms

* bodge

#### See also

* foul up
* mess up
* screw up

### Etymology 2

From Middle English botche, from Anglo-Norman boche, from Late Latin bocia (“boss”).

#### Noun

botch (plural botches)
* (obsolete) A tumour or other malignant swelling.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, 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, 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.