"paper-trail" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "paper-trails",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "paper-trail (plural paper-trails)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "paper trail"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2010, John Francome, Inside Track:",
          "text": "Jane found herself looking at the conventional paper-trail of a young woman's financial life –credit-card bills, reams of bank statements and a building society passbook.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Charles Tyrie, The Langley Boy to Be Better Than the Best!:",
          "text": "For example, not only did we have to provide a child safety policy, we had to demonstrate that we operated one, that the policy documents were in the filing system, that staff had been inducted in the new policies and that there was a 'paper-trail', a horrible expression, to demonstrate that that a system was embedded in the school's management and teaching practices.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Ravi Narayanan, Understanding the Government Machine:",
          "text": "The applicant would still need to approach the agency with the same application perhaps more than once so that a reasonable paper-trail of indecision on the case, or a stalemate or deadlock of the case situation is created.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of paper trail"
      ],
      "id": "en-paper-trail-en-noun-8djMc3TD",
      "links": [
        [
          "paper trail",
          "paper trail#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "paper-trail"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "paper-trails",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "paper-trail (plural paper-trails)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "paper trail"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2010, John Francome, Inside Track:",
          "text": "Jane found herself looking at the conventional paper-trail of a young woman's financial life –credit-card bills, reams of bank statements and a building society passbook.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Charles Tyrie, The Langley Boy to Be Better Than the Best!:",
          "text": "For example, not only did we have to provide a child safety policy, we had to demonstrate that we operated one, that the policy documents were in the filing system, that staff had been inducted in the new policies and that there was a 'paper-trail', a horrible expression, to demonstrate that that a system was embedded in the school's management and teaching practices.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Ravi Narayanan, Understanding the Government Machine:",
          "text": "The applicant would still need to approach the agency with the same application perhaps more than once so that a reasonable paper-trail of indecision on the case, or a stalemate or deadlock of the case situation is created.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of paper trail"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "paper trail",
          "paper trail#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "paper-trail"
}