as in jumbles
an unorganized collection or mixture of various things
this police procedural is basically a botch of plot elements stolen from other (and better) novels
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in fumbles
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way
the first time we tried to make a cake, we botched the job completely
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of botches
Matthew Couden, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Sep. 2025
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 27 May 2026
Continue reading … FACT CHECK – Washington Post botches Israel-Gaza history leading to major correction.
—FOXNews.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Noun
During last week's WWE SmackDown, a series of mistakes and botches drew harsh criticism from fans.
—Matthew Couden, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Sep. 2025
Verb
But there’s nothing shocking or subversive about this movie, which plays like proficient, forgettable straight-to-streaming fare for the first ninety minutes and then botches its big, bloody finale.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 27 May 2026
Continue reading … FACT CHECK – Washington Post botches Israel-Gaza history leading to major correction.
—FOXNews.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for botches
Noun
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Arches and natural bridges sweep like buttresses from jumbles of rock, giving this landscape a mystical, cathedral-like quality.—
Madison Chapman,
Outside,
25 Mar. 2026
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Macaroons are chewy jumbles of coconut bound together with egg whites and sweetened condensed milk.—
Lynda Balslev,
Mercury News,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Tensions between the galley and the interior continue to escalate over lunch service, when a radio mishap fumbles the order in which the food should go out.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
26 May 2026
-
The movie fumbles the chance to do something arresting with this seminal period in art.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
12 May 2026
Noun
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At a typical weekend festival, owner Sal Graci offers four roll varieties (and a couple of lemonades).—
USA TODAY Network,
USA Today,
19 June 2026
-
Most iris varieties flower from late spring to early summer, bringing pops of color to garden spaces and flower vases.—
SJ McShane,
Martha Stewart,
18 June 2026
Verb
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Pinkas said that before the war, Iran was isolated under sanctions that choked its oil exports, dealing blows to its economy.—
Pamela Avila,
CNN Money,
18 June 2026
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Both the England and Croatia fans boo as the referee blows for the hydration breaks.—
Charles Baggarly,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
18 June 2026
Noun
-
Far from a future concept, AI is a real-time business capability reshaping how assortments are planned, demand is forecasted, product performance is evaluated and market shifts are addressed.—
SJ Studio,
Footwear News,
10 June 2026
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The company curates snack and pantry assortments for properties including the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, as well as corporate clients like OpenAI's New York office.—
Esha Chhabra,
Forbes.com,
14 May 2026
Verb
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Gentleman thief Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven) circles the prize while Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) bungles the pursuit with sublime obliviousness.—
Lilah Ramzi,
Vogue,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Lowlights included uninspiring medleys.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 June 2026
-
For the elder millennials, the bittersweet spot was the medleys of older Kanye cuts released from 2004 to 2016 (think The College Dropout to The Life of Pablo).—
Adelle Platon,
VIBE.com,
2 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Hockney’s paintings and drawings, as well as his later photo collages and digital works, invariably had a playful, exploratory, interrogative relationship with perspective, light, scale, framing, rendering—the basic components of picture-making.—
Mark Rozzo,
Vanity Fair,
12 June 2026
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In the 1980s, Hockney would embrace Polaroid collages and would later use an iPad to create a series of digital paintings.—
Alex Ritman,
Variety,
12 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Botches.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/botches. Accessed 19 Jun. 2026.
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