Adjacent Words

red tape definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: needlessly time-consuming procedure [syn: bureaucratic procedure, red tape]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: from the red tape formerly used to bind legal documents in England Date: 1736 official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay or inaction

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tape Tape, n. [AS. t[ae]ppe a fillet. Cf. Tapestry, Tippet.] 1. A narrow fillet or band of cotton or linen; a narrow woven fabric used for strings and the like; as, curtains tied with tape. 2. A tapeline; also, a metallic ribbon so marked as to serve as a tapeline; as, a steel tape. Red tape. See under Red. Tape grass (Bot.), a plant (Vallisneria spiralis) with long ribbonlike leaves, growing in fresh or brackish water; -- called also fresh-water eelgrass, and, in Maryland, wild celery. Tape needle. See Bodkin, n., 4.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Red horse. (Zo["o]l.) (a) Any large American red fresh-water sucker, especially Moxostoma macrolepidotum and allied species. (b) See the Note under Drumfish. Red lead. (Chem) See under Lead, and Minium. Red-lead ore. (Min.) Same as Crocoite. Red liquor (Dyeing), a solution consisting essentially of aluminium acetate, used as a mordant in the fixation of dyestuffs on vegetable fiber; -- so called because used originally for red dyestuffs. Called also red mordant. Red maggot (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the wheat midge. Red manganese. (Min.) Same as Rhodochrosite. Red man, one of the American Indians; -- so called from his color. Red maple (Bot.), a species of maple (Acer rubrum). See Maple. Red mite. (Zo["o]l.) See Red spider, below. Red mulberry (Bot.), an American mulberry of a dark purple color (Morus rubra). Red mullet (Zo["o]l.), the surmullet. See Mullet. Red ocher (Min.), a soft earthy variety of hematite, of a reddish color. Red perch (Zo["o]l.), the rosefish. Red phosphorus. (Chem.) See under Phosphorus. Red pine (Bot.), an American species of pine (Pinus resinosa); -- so named from its reddish bark. Red precipitate. See under Precipitate. Red Republican (European Politics), originally, one who maintained extreme republican doctrines in France, -- because a red liberty cap was the badge of the party; an extreme radical in social reform. [Cant] Red ribbon, the ribbon of the Order of the Bath in England. Red sanders. (Bot.) See Sanders. Red sandstone. (Geol.) See under Sandstone. Red scale (Zo["o]l.), a scale insect (Aspidiotus aurantii) very injurious to the orange tree in California and Australia. Red silver (Min.), an ore of silver, of a ruby-red or reddish black color. It includes proustite, or light red silver, and pyrargyrite, or dark red silver. Red snapper (Zo["o]l.), a large fish (Lutlanus aya or Blackfordii) abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and about the Florida reefs. Red snow, snow colored by a mocroscopic unicellular alga (Protococcus nivalis) which produces large patches of scarlet on the snows of arctic or mountainous regions. Red softening (Med.) a form of cerebral softening in which the affected parts are red, -- a condition due either to infarction or inflammation. Red spider (Zo["o]l.), a very small web-spinning mite (Tetranychus telarius) which infests, and often destroys, plants of various kinds, especially those cultivated in houses and conservatories. It feeds mostly on the under side of the leaves, and causes them to turn yellow and die. The adult insects are usually pale red. Called also red mite. Red squirrel (Zo["o]l.), the chickaree. Red tape, the tape used in public offices for tying up documents, etc.; hence, official formality and delay.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

You refer to official rules and procedures as red tape when they seem unnecessary and cause delay. The little money that was available was tied up in bureaucratic red tape. [disapproval]

Moby Thesaurus

afterthought, beadledom, beat, beaten path, bind, block, blockage, bumbledom, bureaucracy, bureaucratic delay, bureaucratism, chinoiserie, daily grind, delay, delayage, delayed reaction, detention, double take, dragging, grind, groove, halt, hang-up, hindrance, holdup, interim, jam, jog trot, lag, lagging, logjam, moratorium, obstruction, official jargon, officialism, paperasserie, pause, red-tapeism, red-tapery, reprieve, respite, retardance, retardation, round, routine, run, rut, slow-up, slowdown, slowness, squirrel cage, stay, stay of execution, stop, stoppage, suspension, tie-up, time lag, track, treadmill, wait, well-worn groove