▪ I. botcher1
(ˈbɒtʃə(r))
Also 4 bochour, 5 botchare.
[f. botch v. + -er1.]
1. A mender, repairer, or patcher. Also fig.
| 1499 Promp. Parv. 42 Botchare of olde thinges, resartor. 1629 Ford Lover's Mel. i. ii. (1811) 134 Physicians are the bodys coblers, rather the botchers of mens bodies. 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. ix. 225 Lepidus was a peace⁓botcher from timidity. |
2. spec. † a. A cobbler. Obs.
| c 1375 ? Barbour St. Marcus 78, He saw a bochour mend al[d] schone, & gef hyme his scho for to mend. 1610 Cooke Pope Joan in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) IV. 70 That John the Twenty-second was ‘filius veteramentarii resarcitoris videlicet solearum’; that is, the son of a botcher. |
b. A tailor who does repairs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 200/1 Botcher of old garments, rauavdevr. 1552 Huloet, Bodger, botcher, mender, or patcher of olde garmentes. 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 14 There is a Shomaker, there is a Cobler: a Tailor, and a Botcher. 1663 Baxter Div. Life 31 A sorry Taylor may make a Botcher, or a bad Shoomaker may make a Cobler. a 1734 North Lives (1826) II. 409 Like a botcher in a paltry hut, sat cross⁓legged. 1783 Cowper Lett. 23 Sept., Though but a botcher, which is somewhat less than a tailor. 1841 Marryat Poacher xxviii, I had to examine..their trousers, and hold weekly conversation with the botcher, as to..repairs. |
† c. ? A jobber. (Sense doubtful; cf. botcheries and brokerages in quot. 1624 under botchery.)
| c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Good Mann. (1570) G iv, Be no towler, catchpoll nor customer, No broker nor botcher, no somner nor sergeaunt..The moste of this number liueth..by fraudes and by polling. |
3. One who does a thing bunglingly; a clumsy maker up of; an unskilful workman, a bungler.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 42 Bochchare or vncrafty [1499 botchar], iners. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 288 This Pope Boniface y⊇ botcher of y⊇ Decretalls. 1654 Trapp Comm. Job xiii. 4 Ye are not onely..forgers, but..botchers. 1700 Congreve Way of World v. i, To become a botcher of second-hand marriages. 1885 R. Bridges Nero ii. i, Thou miserable, painful, hackney-themed Botcher of tragedies. |
▪ II. botcher2
(ˈbɒtʃə(r))
A young salmon; a grilse.
| 1801 T. Selwyn MS. Let. to A. Selwyn, We have Salmon and we have botcher If the fisher man chance to cotch her. 1875 Times 26 Aug., Formerly grilse, or botchers, were far more plentiful than they have been. 1886 Athenæum 3 Apr. 459/3 The two-year-old salmon, the grilse or ‘botcher’. |