cross the t's and dot the i's

present singular third person crosses the t's and dots the i's · participle present crossing the t's and dotting the i's · participle past crossed the t's and dotted the i's · past crossed the t's and dotted the i's

1. alternativeAlternative form of dot the i's and cross the t's.

   Regional office technical staffs do the main nuts and bolts crossing the "t's" and dotting the "i's", if you will , providing the types of expertise , financial or otherwise , that it is unfair to expect EDRs to have to that degree and that depth.

   1980, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies, Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, the Judiciary, and related agencies appropriations for 1981: hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, second session, Part 9, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 444

   1 more example

   […] at the September signing of the Lusaka Agreement, which, other than straightening out details, really amounted to crossing the t's and dotting the i's; and during the four phases of economic and technical negotiations when, under the cover of building fraternal relations, neocolonial persuasions surfaced.

   2013, James H. Mittelman, Underdevelopment and the Transition to Socialism: Mozambique and Tanzania, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 232