Word.ws English Dictionary

cross the t's and dot the i's

cross the t's and dot the i's is the alternative form of dot the i's and cross the t's.

Meaning of dot the i's and cross the t's

Verb

dot the i's and cross the t's (third-person singular simple present dots the i's and crosses the t's, present participle dotting the i's and crossing the t's, simple past and past participle dotted the i's and crossed the t's)

  1. (idiomatic) To take care of every detail, even minor ones; to be meticulous or thorough; to finish off something close to complete.
    • Before taking the project to the CEO, let's make sure we dot the i's and cross the t's.

Forms of cross the t's and dot the i's

third-person singular presentcrosses the t's and dots the i's
present participlecrossing the t's and dotting the i's
past participlecrossed the t's and dotted the i's
pastcrossed the t's and dotted the i's

Questions about cross the t's and dot the i's

What is cross the t's and dot the i's the alternative form of?
Cross the t's and dot the i's is the alternative form of dot the i's and cross the t's.

Words near cross the t's and dot the i's in the dictionary

  1. cross the line
  2. cross the river
  3. cross the Rubicon
  4. cross the streams
  5. cross the Styx
  6. cross the t's and dot the i's
  7. cross the Thames
  8. cross the Tiber
  9. cross the wires
  10. cross to bear
  11. cross to take up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cross the t's and dot the i's (page history and authors); dot the i's and cross the t's (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cross the t's and dot the i's.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cross_the_t%27s_and_dot_the_i%27s. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.