How to Use red tape in a Sentence

red tape

noun
Definition of red tapenext
Synonyms for red tapenext
  • You would not believe the red tape involved in getting the required permits.
  • Why all this red tape in the way of the best and the brightest?
    — Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 6 Feb. 2024
  • Kids play in the background, as members of the crowd joke about the red tape.
    — Noah Robertson, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 July 2022
  • The grants are easy to apply for without a lot of red tape.
    — Pam McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 10 Sep. 2022
  • This means the team knows the struggle, the red tape and also how to overcome them.
    — Georgann Yara, The Arizona Republic, 11 Nov. 2022
  • There’s quite a lot of red tape as to where cameras can be placed within the buildings, though.
    — Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 26 May 2023
  • Plans to adapt the grid to clean energy are confronting mountains of red tape.
    — Evan Halper, Washington Post, 14 June 2022
  • The team spent 17 days on board, but much of the work was waylaid by bureaucratic red tape.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Everything is always draped in miles and miles of red tape.
    — Fox News, 27 June 2022
  • Gloria vowed to keep cutting through red tape at City Hall.
    — David Garrick jan. 11, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Jan. 2023
  • For Hsu, this red tape is the No. 1 reason Oxbryta hasn’t been more widely used.
    — Jason Mast, STAT, 19 Dec. 2022
  • Patzer pushed for 15 years to jump-start the data collection process but said she was stymied by red tape.
    — Ben Tanen, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2024
  • Peskin blamed the city’s housing dearth on market forces, not red tape.
    — Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Twenty twenty-three could be the year red tape loses its grip.
    — Jonathan Wolfson, National Review, 1 Feb. 2023
  • Whether the plan can make it through government red tape – and the courts – is a different story.
    — Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY, 23 Feb. 2024
  • But now comes a bunch of red tape, including figuring out how to start the divorce process.
    — Elizabeth Kiefer, Glamour, 25 Dec. 2023
  • The red tape has left the Kaitzs in limbo, with Sam spending about $70 per day for lodging in Mexico City.
    — Marisa Iati, Washington Post, 29 June 2023
  • One of the strategies the German government will use to accomplish this ambitious goal is to clear some of the red tape around fiber projects by the end of 2022.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2022
  • West Virginia drivers loathe the motor-vehicle tax and the red tape to get their license plates.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2022
  • There are signs that regional chains are adapting to chargers, albeit with lots of red tape.
    — John McCracken, The New Republic, 11 July 2023
  • An advance on funding and less red tape around construction may help.
    — Joe Sonka, The Courier-Journal, 26 Aug. 2022
  • America did not want more Jews, and even fancy, rich ones could barely buy their way in through the golden door blocked by red tape.
    — Dara Horn, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2022
  • Williams manages to get a longstanding proposal for a playground, which had been mired in red tape, passed through.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Dec. 2022
  • The event allows veterans a chance to get resources face-to-face without having to cut through any red tape or wait back to hear a reply.
    — Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 23 Sep. 2022
  • The red tape both Casa de Salud and The Project are encountering has prevented treatment for patients.
    — Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Scanlan, 66, stepped up to a cardboard box of ballots sealed with red tape indicating that the contents were void if opened.
    — Joanna Slater, Washington Post, 16 Nov. 2022
  • Across the board, long Covid patients say help is hard to come by, prolonged by red tape as well as a lack of urgency and understanding.
    — Julia Chan, CNN, 9 Mar. 2023
  • Critics of all sorts, including those getting aid, complain of red tape.
    — Jason Deparle Maddie McGarvey, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2022
  • All of this legal red tape is put in place to make sure that drone pilots stay out of the way of other aircraft—where drones can do a surprising amount of damage.
    — Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 28 Aug. 2023
  • And doctors have argued that access to Tpoxx is limited not by supply but by the red tape required to order it.
    — Jason Mast, STAT, 22 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'red tape.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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