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Cross your t's and dot your i's

Posted by R. Berg on May 13, 2004

In Reply to: Cross your t's and dot your i's posted by sunny on May 13, 2004

: I looked it up in my dictionary and ran into a explanation that it means " to deal with all the details when you are finishing something"

: I don't get what the "t'd" and "i's" stand for.
: and need to know what the "finishing something" mean
: does it mean end up something without skipping any trivial things?

: Help me here, guys

The t's and i's are the letter "t" and the letter "i." A piece of handwriting isn't complete until every "t" is crossed and every "i" has a dot. "Finishing something" means doing the whole job, whatever it is - writing a report, washing the dishes, painting a house, anything. The saying refers to taking care of all the details of what you're doing, as opposed to leaving things out and doing an incomplete job.

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