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Red Tape

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Official formality; so called because lawyers and government officials tie their papers together with red tape. Charles Dickens introduced the phrase.

“There is a good deal of red tape at Scotland Yard, as anyone may find to his cost who has any business to transact there.”—W. Terrell: Lady Delmar, bk. iii. 2.

 

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Red-letter Day
Red Man
Red Men
Red Rag (The)
Red Republicans
Red Rose Knight (The)
Red Rot (The)
Red Sea
Red-shanks
Red Snow
Red Tape
Red Tape
Red Tapism
Red Tincture
Redan
Redder (The)
Redding-straik (A)
Redgauntlet
Redgauntlet
Redlaw (Mr)
Redmain

See Also:

Red-tape