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.
1
To perform (a task) in an incompetent or unacceptable manner; to make a mess of something.
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: […]1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 75, column 1:
2
To do (something) without care or skill, or clumsily.
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.
1
An action, job, or task that has been performed very badly; a ruined, defective, or clumsy piece of work.
That I require a cleareneſſe; and with him; / To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke: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:
2
A patch put on, or a part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner.
3
A mistake that is very stupid or embarrassing.
4
A messy, disorderly or confusing combination; a conglomeration; hodgepodge.
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.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:
Botches and blaines muſt all his fleſh imboſs,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:
2
A case or outbreak of boils or sores.
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.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 28:27: