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It means bureauocracy essentially. Meaning procedures which have to be followed despite their

waste of time involved in doing so.

This phrase comes from the fact that official documents were once bound in pink or red ribbon.

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6y ago
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14y ago

Traditionally, official and government files were tied shut with red silk tape.

Therefore, if you wanted to get something done, you had to sometimes wade through a mountain of 'red tape'.

Therefore, to 'cut the red tape' is to bypass all the official difficulties and to actually achieve your goal.

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Q: What does the idiom red tape mean?
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