Red tape is rules and paperwork that slow everything down. Cut the red tape, buried in red tape, endless red tape.
It is always a complaint, and cutting red tape is a promise every government makes. The name is literal: official documents really were bound with red tape, and the phrase is attested from 1658.
1nounred tapeRules and paperwork that slow everything down.
“It took months of red tape to get a permit for the new shop sign.”
red tape is a bureaucracy.
From the red tape used to bind official documents, with the phrase attested from 1658.
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Politics & Society