Word.ws English Dictionary

green tape

green tape noun: time-consuming bureaucratic procedures or regulations relating to environmental concerns.

Noun

green tape (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory) Time-consuming bureaucratic procedures or regulations relating to environmental concerns.
    • “We were bitterly disappointed with the pull back on the green tape reduction and we felt the federal government had been held hostage by the Greens for their electoral fortunes,” Mr Nicholls told The Australian Financial Review.Australian Financial Review, January 14, 2013

Origin of green tape

From green (“environmentally friendly”) and red tape (“bureaucratic regulations”).

Questions about green tape

What does green tape mean?
Green tape means time-consuming bureaucratic procedures or regulations relating to environmental concerns.
What part of speech is green tape?
Green tape is a noun.

Words near green tape in the dictionary

  1. green swards
  2. green syrup
  3. green syrups
  4. green table
  5. green tables
  6. green tape
  7. green tar
  8. green tars
  9. green tax
  10. green taxes
  11. green tea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: green tape (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “green tape.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/green_tape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.