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DictionarybotchClumsy work
verb / noun

botch

BAHCH/bɑːtʃ/

Doing a job badly through clumsiness or lack of skill, or the resulting work.

The wrinkled, crooked wallpaper is a botch.

A man botches a wallpapering job: he presses a new strip over the previous strip at a crooked angle, leaving conspicuous wrinkles, trapped bubbles, and a badly mismatched simple pattern.
Etymology
botchMiddle Englishto repair

Bocchen originally meant to repair. Its meaning shifted to repairing clumsily and spoiling something through unskilled work, giving the modern sense of doing a task badly.

In context

National Geographic55:43
I mean, you got to start flying. And if you don't start flying, if you botch your exit, you know, a zipper comes open or any--you know, anything, you're dead.
Fly (Full Documentary) | SPECIAL | National Geographic

More examples

  • The crooked shelves were a complete botch.
  • She worried that an inexperienced crew would botch the installation.
  • The job had been badly botched.

Forms

botch · botches · botched · botching

Similar words

bungle
Bungle likewise means perform badly through incompetence; botch also names the spoiled result.
botch-up
A botch-up is an informal name for a badly handled job; botch can also be the verb.