Meaning
Excessive bureaucratic procedure and paperwork that delays action, especially adherence to official rules even when they serve no purpose. Usually framed as 'cut through red tape'. Always negative; conveys frustration with officious delay and needless form-filling. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Since at least the 17th century, legal and official documents were literally bound with red or pink ribbon tape; The Phrase Finder cites the Maryland Laws of 1696-1715 describing a map sealed 'with Red Tape'. The practice is older still: it is commonly traced to the administration of Charles V of Spain in the early 16th century, whose officials bound urgent dossiers for the Council of State in red tape (Spanish 'balduque') to distinguish them from files tied with plain string. The metaphorical sense developed in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: The Pleader's Guide (1796) plays on the phrase, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel Alice, or the Mysteries (1838) contains an early fully figurative use ('the red-tape minister'). Dickens's image of Britannia 'bound hand and foot with red tape' in David Copperfield (1850) and Carlyle's complaints helped popularize it.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bound in red tape
- cut through red tape
- red tape bureaucracy
Usage Examples
- Small exporters say customs red tape costs them weeks of delay on every shipment.
- The minister promised to cut through red tape so flood repairs could begin immediately.
- Her application stalled not on merit but on red tape involving three separate agencies.