sea of paperwork
- noun
- Informal
:
mar de papeleo
- To buy a house, you need to navigate through a sea of paperwork that feels endless.
Examples
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Suddenly, there's what seems like a sea of paperwork and bureaucratic red tape to fight your way through, along with the added pressure of finding a way to accommodate your nanny and her injury while finding a substitute for your out-of-commission primary childcare provider.
Blog text (1) -
The system ground to a halt with FOIA staff sinking in a sea of paperwork.
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After submitting the application, I was overwhelmed by a sea of paperwork to complete.
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The company faced delays due to a sea of paperwork that needed to be processed before they could move forward.
Synonyms
2
3.5
A very large pile of papers such as forms that you must complete
1
4.5
A large amount of boring forms and documents you must fill for official work
A large untidy pile of papers on a desk or floor
How Much
- Informal
2
3.5
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'sea' is used metaphorically to indicate something vast or overwhelming, and when composed with 'paperwork' the combined meaning 'a large amount of paperwork' is directly inferable from the constituents. This metaphorical pattern ('a sea of X') is common across languages and follows a simple compositional mapping, so a B1 learner who knows 'sea' and 'paperwork' would likely understand the phrase.
Etymology
Sea of paperwork uses the image of a sea and paperwork: imagine piles of forms rolling like waves around you. That's why it means 'a large and overwhelming amount of paperwork'.