to cut red tape

1 3.7

To remove official rules and extra paperwork that delay action

idiom

: eliminar la burocracia

He said, "To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year."
cut red tape to make

Examples

Modify the certification program to cut red tape and make the certification process more efficient.

Blog text (16)
First, cut red tape.

Academic text (2001)
A Michigan-based organization has been awarded a new project to help cut red tape and develop the infrastructure, training, and regional planning to help meet demand for alternative fuel vehicles.

Blog text (18)
As part of the Plan for America's Job Creators and the American Energy Initiative, the Republican-led House has passed many bills to address high energy costs by boosting production, cutting red tape, and streamlining the permitting process so we can create American-made energy more quickly.

Blog text (7)
The government promised to cut red tape to help small businesses grow.
We need to cut red tape if we want to implement these changes faster.
This policy aims to cut red tape and simplify the process for applicants.

Synonyms

to cut through the red tape

vsto cut red tape

2 4.4

Remove slow official rules to make things happen faster

is the same in meaning but is a shorter, more direct expression

Antonyms

to complicate

101 4.1

To make something harder to understand or do

to bureaucratize

Formal

1 8.0

To add many official rules and procedures to an organization or system

How Simple

to abolish

112 4.1

to deregulate

25 5.8

to cut red tape

1 3.7

to streamline

41 4.1

to follow the procedure

2 3.3

Surface Forms

cut red tape infinitive

cut red tape past

cut red tape past participle

cutting red tape present participle

cuts red tape third person singular

Morphology

cut + red + tape

The noun phrase 'red tape' is an established idiom meaning bureaucratic procedures, and this meaning cannot be derived from the literal words 'red' + 'tape'. While 'cut' does convey removal or reduction, a B1 learner who only knows the literal constituents would not predict the bureaucratic sense, so the overall expression is unpredictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Cut red tape may come from old government offices where important papers were tied with red tape, and staff would sometimes literally cut the ribbon to free the documents. This picture of removing the red ribbon became a way to talk about removing slow rules, so today cut red tape means 'to remove unnecessary rules or steps'.