See red tape in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for red tape meaning in English (7.8kB)
{
"etymology_text": "Attested since 1736; thought to allude to the former practice of binding government documents in red-coloured tape.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "red tape (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "green tape"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "red-tapism"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "red-tapist"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The binding tape once used for holding important documents together."
],
"id": "en-red_tape-en-noun-IcPqiobO",
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English metonyms",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "32 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"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": "quotation"
},
{
"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": "quotation"
},
{
"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.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures."
],
"id": "en-red_tape-en-noun-kKIP9Dl9",
"links": [
[
"regulation",
"regulation"
],
[
"bureaucratic",
"bureaucratic"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(metonymically, idiomatic) Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "administrivia"
},
{
"word": "administrativia"
},
{
"word": "paperwork"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"metonymically",
"uncountable"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "rompslomp"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文縟節"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "fánwénrùjié",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文缛节"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚習氣"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "guānliáo xíqì",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "官僚习气"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "úřední šiml"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "paarse krokodil"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "paperisota"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "impôt papier"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "paperasse f paperasserie"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Amtsschimmel"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "hi",
"lang": "Hindi",
"roman": "lālfītā",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "लालफ़ीता"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hanbun jokurei",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "繁文縟礼"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "reddo teepu",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "レッドテープ"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"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": "12 88",
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"roman": "kâğaz-bâzi",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "کاغذبازی"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "biuralizm"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "biurokracja"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "biurokratyzm"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "burocracia"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bjurokratízm",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бюрократи́зм"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "kanceljárščina",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "канцеля́рщина"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "volokíta",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "волоки́та"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "sk",
"lang": "Slovak",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "úradný šimeľ"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papeleo"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "burocracia"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "cinta roja"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "expedienteo"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papelerío"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "trámites"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gestión"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "formalismos"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "formulismos"
},
{
"_dis1": "12 88",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "excessive bureaucracy",
"word": "byråkrati"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red tape.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/20/En-au-red_tape.ogg/En-au-red_tape.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/En-au-red_tape.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red tape"
],
"word": "red tape"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncountable nouns"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "green tape"
},
{
"word": "red-tapism"
},
{
"word": "red-tapist"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Attested since 1736; thought to allude to the former practice of binding government documents in red-coloured tape.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "red tape (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"The binding tape once used for holding important documents together."
],
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English metonyms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"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": "quotation"
},
{
"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": "quotation"
},
{
"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.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures."
],
"links": [
[
"regulation",
"regulation"
],
[
"bureaucratic",
"bureaucratic"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(metonymically, idiomatic) Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "administrivia"
},
{
"word": "administrativia"
},
{
"word": "paperwork"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"metonymically",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red tape.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/20/En-au-red_tape.ogg/En-au-red_tape.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/En-au-red_tape.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"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"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). 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.