Word.ws English Dictionary

red tape

red tape noun: the binding tape once used for holding important documents together.

red tape: the binding tape once used for holding important documents together
Image: Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

red tape (uncountable)

  1. The binding tape once used for holding important documents together.
    • 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...1884, Eliezer Edwards, Words, Facts and Phrases ...curious, Quaint and Out-of-the Way Matters, page 469
    • 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.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
  2. (idiomatic, metonymically) Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures.
    • All the red tape and paperwork that goes on there prevents any progress.
    • caught up in the red tape of officialdom

red tape meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

red tape in Hindi

excessive bureaucracy
लालफ़ीता lālfītā

red tape in Tamil

சிவப்பு நாடா

red tape in Urdu

خانہ پری

red tape in Bengali

আমলাতন্ত্র, লাল ফিতা
More languagesFewer languages
red tape in Kannada
ಕೆಂಪುಪಟ್ಟಿ, ಆಡಳಿತ ಸಂಪ್ರದಾಯ, ಮಿತಿಮೀರಿದ ಆಡಳಿತ ವಿಳಂಬ ಪದ್ಧತಿ
red tape in Persian
کاغذبازی kâġaz-bâzi

Examples of red tape in a sentence

  • The use of red tape for tying up papers is of considerable antiquity.1884, Eliezer Edwards, Words, Facts and Phrases ...curious, Quaint and Out-of-the Way Matters, page 469:
  • I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon / And cut through all this red tape / At a bar called O'Malley's / Where we'll plan our escape1979, Rupert Holmes, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”, in Partners in Crime:

Synonyms of red tape

Origin of red tape

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.

Words formed from red tape

Questions about red tape

What does red tape mean?
Red tape means the binding tape once used for holding important documents together.
What is red tape in Hindi?
Red tape in Hindi is लालफ़ीता (lālfītā). See Red tape meaning in Hindi.
How do you use red tape in a sentence?
The use of red tape for tying up papers is of considerable antiquity.
What part of speech is red tape?
Red tape is a noun.

Words near red tape in the dictionary

  1. red tail disease
  2. red tailed shark
  3. red tailed sharks
  4. red tanager
  5. red tanagers
  6. red tape
  7. red tea
  8. red team
  9. red teamed
  10. red teamer
  11. red teamers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: red tape (page history and authors); red tape (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); red tape (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); red tape (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); red tape (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-red tape.ogg.

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