red tape

The collection or sequence of forms and procedures required to gain bureaucratic approval for something, especially when oppressively complex and time-consuming.

[From its former use in tying British official documents.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

red tape

obstructive official routine or procedure; time-consuming bureaucracy

[C18: from the red tape used to bind official government documents]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

red′ tape′

bureaucratic routine required before official action can be taken.

[1730–40; after the red tape used to tie official documents]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

red tape - needlessly time-consuming procedure

bureaucratic procedure

procedure - a mode of conducting legal and parliamentary proceedings

red tape

noun bureaucracy, the government, administration, the system, the authorities, officialdom, the corridors of power They are hamstrung to red tape.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

إجْراءات رَسْمِيَّه عَقيمَه

úřední šiml

bureaukrati

Amtsschimmel bürokratisch

paperisota

skriffinnska

burocrazia

бюрократизм волокита

úradný šimeľ

bürokrasikırtasiyecilik

繁文缛节

red tape

n → lungaggini fpl burocratiche

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

red

(red) noun, adjective

1. (of) the colour of blood. a red car/dress / cheeks; red cheeks; a red car/dress / cheeks; Her eyes were red with crying.

2. (of hair or fur) (of) a colour which varies between a golden brown and a deep reddish-brown.

3. (a) communist. Red China; A lot of his university friends are Reds.

the Red Army

the army of the former USSR.

ˈredden verb

1. to make or become red or redder. to redden the lips with lipstick.

2. to blush. She reddened as she realized her mistake.

ˈreddish adjective

slightly red. reddish hair.

ˈredness noun

ˈredcurrant noun

a type of garden bush grown for its small red fruit.

ˈredhead noun

a person with red hair.

red herring

1. something that leads people away from the main point in a discussion.

2. a false clue or line of enquiry.

ˌred-ˈhot adjective

(of metal etc) so hot that it is glowing red. red-hot steel; This iron is red-hot.

Red Indian

a North American Indian.

red-letter day

a day which will always be remembered because of something especially good that happened on it.

red tape

annoying and unnecessary rules and regulations.

be in the red

to be in debt.

catch red-handed

to find (a person) in the act of doing wrong. The police caught the thief red-handed.

see red

to become angry. When he started criticizing my work, I really saw red.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The complication was of this nature: Alexey Alexandrovitch's characteristic quality as a politician, that special individual qualification that every rising functionary possesses, the qualification that with his unflagging ambition, his reserve, his honesty, and with his self-confidence had made his career, was his contempt for red tape, his cutting down of correspondence, his direct contact, wherever possible, with the living fact, and his economy.

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I very much wanted one of the sorry old tables which the prisoners had spent so many years in ornamenting with their pocket-knives, but red tape was in the way.

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Having disposed of this temperate refreshment, she arose from her stool, tied her papers into a formal packet with red tape, and taking them under her arm, marched out of the office.

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(though not by any means an old man) and black eyebrows, who was looking over some papers tied together with red tape; the other, of a lady, with a very placid and sweet expression of face, who was looking at me.

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Did anyone tell you about Beth's giving away her things?" asked Laurie soberly, as Amy laid a bit of red tape, with sealing wax, a taper, and a standish before him.

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They merely charged illegality in the elections and wrapped up the whole situation in the interminable red tape of the law.

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If I had waited for the governor to let her know in the usual course of red tape we should never have got anywhere.

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will find us in rather a smaller house than we were accustomed to receive our friends in; but it's snug, and the change of air does good to my daughter, who was suffering in town rather--you remember little Emmy, sir?--yes, suffering a good deal." The old gentleman's eyes were wandering as he spoke, and he was thinking of something else, as he sate thrumming on his papers and fumbling at the worn red tape.

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Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper--foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey- brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India- rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape and green ferret; in pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands--glass and leaden--pen-knives, scissors, bodkins, and other small office-cutlery; in short, in articles too numerous to mention, ever since he was out of his time and went into partnership with Peffer.

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We soon, however, delighted them by trifling presents, such as tying red tape round their heads.

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But, when he is trimmed, smoothed, and varnished, according to the mode; when he is aweary of vice, and aweary of virtue, used up as to brimstone, and used up as to bliss; then, whether he take to the serving out of red tape, or to the kindling of red fire, he is the very Devil.

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As George Ade has said, "Anything attached to a wall is liable to be a telephone in Paris." And so, what with poor equipment and red tape, the French system became what it remains to-day, the most conspicuous example of what NOT to do in telephony.

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