go over with a fine-toothed comb

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom meaning to examine something with extraordinary thoroughness, attention, and meticulous care — catching every detail, inconsistency, or hidden element that a less careful inspection would miss; the metaphor derives from the fine-toothed comb used to detect and remove lice from hair, which must pass through every strand and catch even the smallest parasites to be effective; in the context of precision fields like nanotechnology, semiconductor fabrication, and scientific research, going over a procedure, a dataset, or a device design with a fine-toothed comb describes the exhaustive verification and quality checking required when small errors have large consequences; the phrase implies not merely thoroughness but a specifically detail-oriented, patient form of scrutiny that does not skip or skim but examines every element in sequence

Examples

• Before submission, she went over the synthesis protocol with a fine-toothed comb, correcting three critical errors.
• Quality control teams go over every wafer with a fine-toothed comb using scanning electron microscopy before the chips ship.