botch
/bɑt͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.40 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To perform (a task) in an incompetent or unacceptable manner; to make a mess of something.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "A botched haircut seems to take forever to grow out."
- "And other diuels that ſuggest by treaſons, / Do botch and bungle vp damnation, / VVith patches, colours, and vvith formes being fetcht / From gliſt'ring ſemblances of piety: […]"
- "That I require a cleareneſſe; and with him; / To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke:"
- "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."
- "Botches and blaines muſt all his fleſh imboſs,"
- "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."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɑt͡ʃ/
- British English: /bɒt͡ʃ/