figurative. Rigid adherence to official rules and formalities; (excessive) bureaucracy, esp. in public business. Chiefly depreciative.

Government by officials; a system of government or (in later use) administration by a hierarchy of professional administrators following clearly…

officialism, bureaucracy.

Rigid adherence to official rules and formalities; red tape.

Behaviour, practices, or attitudes associated with an excessive adherence to official rules and formalities; red tape.

Officials collectively; duties or behaviour belonging to or characteristic of these; = officialism, n. Obsolete.

Administration, esp. of the state, by functionaries; bureaucracy, officialism.

The mode of action seen as characteristic of officials; perfunctory and literal discharge of the duties of office; official system or routine…

Excessive bureaucracy; the people or practices associated with this.

A person who adheres excessively to official rules and formalities; a red-tapist. Also (chiefly with the): red tape, excessive bureaucracy.

Official formality or routine; = red-tapism, n.

A stout tape most commonly made of cotton, but also of silk; then known as Italian ferret. green-ferret, figurative of officialism (cf. red tape, n.…

Official status, position, or behaviour; officialism. rare.

Excessive bureaucratic procedure or paperwork; bureaucracy; red tape.

A cross-country race in which the runners follow a trail marked by torn-up paper; = hare and hounds n. at hare, n. compounds 1b. Also in extended…

the action or practice of conducting or competing in paperchases; (also) bureaucracy.

attachment to departmental methods.

attitudes or behaviour regarded as typical of the British civil service.

striped trousers (typically worn by civil servants, businessmen, etc.), used allusively to indicate the wearer's status, and, by extension…