red tape
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.39 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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 Lincoln's Inn."
- "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."
- "All the red tape and paperwork that goes on there prevents any progress."
- "caught up in the red tape of officialdom"
- "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 escape"
- "That committee does not cut through red tape ; it merely provides better scheduling for different agencies so you do not have sequential review by different agencies , so that you have some kind of simultaneity in the review by different agencies."