See red tape in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Alluding to the former practice of binding government documents in red-colored tape. First use appears c. 1658 in the publication Public Intelligencer. See cite below.",
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"pos": "noun",
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{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "green tape"
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{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "red-tapism"
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{
"_dis1": "100 0",
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{
"ref": "1884, Eliezer Edwards, Words, Facts and Phrases ...curious, Quaint and Out-of-the Way Matters, page 469:",
"text": "The use of red tape for tying up papers is of considerable antiquity. An advertisement in the Public Intelligencer, December 6, 1658, offers the reward for a restoration of a 'A little bundle of papers tied with a red tape, were lost on Friday last was a sevennight, between Worcester House and Lincoln's Inn.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:",
"text": "At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The binding tape once used for holding important documents together."
],
"id": "en-red_tape-en-noun-IcPqiobO",
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[
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[
"together",
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"_dis": "30 70",
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"_dis": "27 73",
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"text": "All the red tape and paperwork that goes on there prevents any progress.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1979, United States Senate, Committee on Finance, Crude Oil Tax, U.S. Government Printing Office:",
"text": "That committee does not cut through red tape ; it merely provides better scheduling for different agencies so you do not have sequential review by different agencies , so that you have some kind of simultaneity in the review by different agencies.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2022 October 5, David Wallace-Wells, “Progressives Should Rally Around a Clean Energy Construction Boom”, in The New York Times:",
"text": "One conspicuous cost of the compromise reached was a promise made by Senator Chuck Schumer to Manchin on what was vaguely called permitting reform: a catchall phrase referring to a whole host of efforts to cut red tape and ease the rollout of energy infrastructure.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2023 June 23, Jonathan Freedland, “With even leavers regretting Brexit, there’s one path back to rejoining the EU”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
"text": "They said we’d be free of all that tedious European red tape and would take back control of our borders, encouraging anyone agitated by immigration to believe that fewer people would come in. […] Post-Brexit red tape is strangling thousands of small businesses, whether travelling musicians or exporters of goods, tying them up in daunting forms or extra charges that cost time and money they don’t have.",
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"id": "en-red_tape-en-noun-kKIP9Dl9",
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[
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"raw_glosses": [
"(metonymically, idiomatic) Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "administrivia"
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{
"word": "administrativia"
},
{
"word": "paperwork"
}
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"tags": [
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"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "rompslomp"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "cmn",
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"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文縟節"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "fánwénrùjié",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文缛节"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚習氣"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "guānliáo xíqì",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚习气"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
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"word": "úřední šiml"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "paarse krokodil"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "paperisota"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "impôt papier"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "paperasse f paperasserie"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Amtsschimmel"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "hi",
"lang": "Hindi",
"roman": "lālfītā",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "लालफ़ीता"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hanbun jokurei",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文縟礼"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "reddo teepu",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "レッドテープ"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "o-yakusho-san no shigoto",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"slang"
],
"word": "お役所さんの仕事"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"roman": "kâğaz-bâzi",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "کاغذبازی"
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{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
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"word": "biuralizm"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "pl",
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"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
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{
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"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "burocracia"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bjurokratízm",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бюрократи́зм"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "ru",
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"roman": "kanceljárščina",
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"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "канцеля́рщина"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "ru",
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"roman": "volokíta",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "волоки́та"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "sk",
"lang": "Slovak",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "úradný šimeľ"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papeleo"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "burocracia"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "cinta roja"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "expedienteo"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papelerío"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "trámites"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gestión"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "formalismos"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "formulismos"
},
{
"_dis1": "34 66",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "byråkrati"
}
]
}
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"wikipedia": [
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"word": "red tape"
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{
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"word": "green tape"
},
{
"word": "red-tapism"
},
{
"word": "red-tapist"
}
],
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"ref": "1884, Eliezer Edwards, Words, Facts and Phrases ...curious, Quaint and Out-of-the Way Matters, page 469:",
"text": "The use of red tape for tying up papers is of considerable antiquity. An advertisement in the Public Intelligencer, December 6, 1658, offers the reward for a restoration of a 'A little bundle of papers tied with a red tape, were lost on Friday last was a sevennight, between Worcester House and Lincoln's Inn.",
"type": "quote"
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"text": "At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.",
"type": "quote"
}
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"type": "quote"
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"ref": "2022 October 5, David Wallace-Wells, “Progressives Should Rally Around a Clean Energy Construction Boom”, in The New York Times:",
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"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2023 June 23, Jonathan Freedland, “With even leavers regretting Brexit, there’s one path back to rejoining the EU”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
"text": "They said we’d be free of all that tedious European red tape and would take back control of our borders, encouraging anyone agitated by immigration to believe that fewer people would come in. […] Post-Brexit red tape is strangling thousands of small businesses, whether travelling musicians or exporters of goods, tying them up in daunting forms or extra charges that cost time and money they don’t have.",
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],
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"word": "administrivia"
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{
"word": "administrativia"
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{
"word": "paperwork"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "rompslomp"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文縟節"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "fánwénrùjié",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文缛节"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚習氣"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "guānliáo xíqì",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚习气"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚習氣"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "guānliáo xíqì",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚习气"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "úřední šiml"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "paarse krokodil"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "paperisota"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "impôt papier"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "paperasse f paperasserie"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Amtsschimmel"
},
{
"code": "hi",
"lang": "Hindi",
"roman": "lālfītā",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "लालफ़ीता"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hanbun jokurei",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文縟礼"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "reddo teepu",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "レッドテープ"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "o-yakusho-san no shigoto",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"slang"
],
"word": "お役所さんの仕事"
},
{
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"roman": "kâğaz-bâzi",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "کاغذبازی"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "biuralizm"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "biurokracja"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "biurokratyzm"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "burocracia"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bjurokratízm",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бюрократи́зм"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "kanceljárščina",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "канцеля́рщина"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "volokíta",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "волоки́та"
},
{
"code": "sk",
"lang": "Slovak",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "úradný šimeľ"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papeleo"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "burocracia"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "cinta roja"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "expedienteo"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papelerío"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "trámites"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gestión"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "formalismos"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "formulismos"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "byråkrati"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red tape"
],
"word": "red tape"
}
Download raw JSONL data for red tape meaning in English (8.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.