Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The collection or sequence of forms and procedures required to gain bureaucratic approval for something, especially when oppressively complex and time-consuming.
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. official formality and delay; excessive bureaucratic paperwork.
- n. See under Red.
WordNet 3.0
- n. needlessly time-consuming procedure
Etymologies
- From its former use in tying British official documents. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We were tied up in our own red tape and each of us could feel that tender something called a comrade getting tougher and tougher to hold onto.”
“HiTek is going to do everything we can to cut right through the red tape and get this project on line immediately.”
“Those hospitals were now a dream compared to the levels of political red tape he suspected he was about to experience with Starfleet Academy.”
“And Clemente — did he see fencing as a way to escape this bureaucratic dumping ground of the maimed and the flawed, where red tape and denials of grants brought frustration and failure?”
“No more red tape - it's time to give every service-member electronic copies of medical and service records upon discharge.”
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Town Hall Meeting with Veterans and Military Families
“We need to cut through the red tape - every service-member should get electronic copies of medical and service records upon discharge.”
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama at the VFW National Convention
“They must have saved this one for an Olympian red tape merchant, the Bureaucrat-in-Chief.”
“You can always negotiate a lower-than-market interest rate from a flexible seller, and you rarely have to go through the red tape required to get a loan through a lending institution.”
“It means no more red tape - it's time to give every service-member electronic copies of medical and service records upon discharge.”
“In many live phone-in shows with BBC World Radio and TV, and other major outlets, we in the large UN agencies are often contrasted with the small, “unbureaucratic” nongovernmental aid groups that “without administrative overhead and red tape can go straight to the needy with their relief.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘red tape’.
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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EN - coloured collocations
The bad news: There are possibly tens of thousands of colour collocations in English. The good news is that the pictures retrieved by Wordnik from flickr will probably match the terms this time.
black currant, black eye, black pudding, blue baby, Blue Beard, blue bell, blue berry, blue blood, Blue Book, blue bottle, blue cheese, blue chip and 280 more...
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EU Buzz - collocations
Multiword expressions frequently used in EU context. Many of them have a specific EU-meaning, some of them are topical in 2012 also outside the EU but have a relevance in EU politics. People workin...
absorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 1567 more...
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red phrases /words
how red is used
red bag, red ant, red-armed, red ale, red alert, red alder, on red, red adder, in red, in the red, bushy red mint, California red scale and 764 more...
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EU Buzz - adj+noun collocations
supranational ins..., supplementary budget, sudden jump, subprime crisis, special represent..., sovereign state, soft power, soft landing, social welfare, social policy, social partners, social justice and 372 more...
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EU Buzz - colour collocations
Once a European politician starts to speak, I am immediately filled with hope. Why? "After us the deluge." And after the deluge - a RAINBOW.
red tape, blue card, green paper, white paper, orange revolution, brown-nosing, amber box, turquoise week, violet revolution, silver bullet, gold-plating, golden handshake and 7 more...
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RocknRolla (2008)
Words from 2008 'RocknRolla' film.
drip, consent, foothold, bricks and mortar, mortar, councillor, let down, wand, clean out, leg-up, hasty, erect and 115 more...
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chromatic phrases
blue movie, brown study, purple prose, rosy scenario, golden mean, eminence grise, white nights, bronze age, silver bullet, orange juice, black death, technicolor yawn and 188 more...
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Important Concepts I Learned from Wat...
mudhen, bowel resection, tracheotomy, shrapnel, brassiere, pinko, peace talks, salami, lebanese, section 8, hot lips, frank burns eats ... and 74 more...
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Reds
Inspired by hernesheir's Greens list.
blood red, red, red-backed, redbait, red-bellied, redbird, red-blooded, redbreast, red-breasted, redbrick, red-brown, redbud and 51 more...
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Banes of My Existence
Ever notice that some people love to make life as miserable for you as possible? It's time to call those people out and stop them from making life unfun, once and for all!
paperwork, taxes, software bugs, spam, car accidents, red tape, laws, morons, greasy restaurants, dryer lint, dialup, statists and 12 more...
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The Bureaucracy Mambo
The title of this list is a reference to Hermes Conrad of Futurama, who sang a song by this title in the episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back."
bureaucracy, requisition, permit, paperwork, official, red tape, file, signature, bureaucrat, department, mandarin, efficiency and 2 more...
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Urban Planner Mumbo Jumbo
Words that urban planners like to throw into the conversation at any point in time...
density, charette, walkable, bikeable, urban form, gentrification, transit, transportation, mass transit, green, CEQA, NEPA and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for red tape.
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