Bauchle

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A shabby, worn-out shoe, especially one that has been trodden down at the heel ; to batter something out of shape or to botch a job through clumsiness
2. An old, down-at-heel shoe that has lost its shape ; to damage or spoil something through rough handling or bungling
3. A battered, shapeless old shoe in Scottish usage ; to mishandle or ruin something by clumsy or careless treatment

Etymology: Scots "bauchle" meant a shoe worn so far past its best that it has lost all shape, the kind a person shuffles about in at the end of a long day. The verb grew from that picture: to bauchle something is to bungle it or wreck it through clumsy, rough handling. The word's ancestry is less certain. It is generally treated as Scots and is probably connected to the Old French "bafouer", meaning "to hoodwink" or "to mock". The link is more a suggestion than a settled fact, and the sense of cheating or ridiculing would be a long way from a battered shoe, so the connection remains an open question.