fine-toothed review
- noun
:
revisión minuciosa
- The auditors gave the company's financial records a fine-toothed review before the annual report was finalized.
Examples
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She performed a fine-toothed review of the contract before signing it.
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The committee conducted a fine-toothed review of the budget.
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Every application undergoes a fine-toothed review to ensure all requirements are met.
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Can we expect a fine-toothed review of the project soon?
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The auditors gave the company's financial records a fine-toothed review before the annual report was finalized.
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She performed a fine-toothed review of the contract before signing it.
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Every application undergoes a fine-toothed review to ensure all requirements are met.
Synonyms
168
5.5
A close, careful look at something to find mistakes or problems
14
4.9
A careful check of something to find problems
7
4.3
A careful search that finds small mistakes or details
3
3.5
A careful study that looks at all parts of something
2
4.1
A very careful check of something to find small errors
1
6.3
A careful step-by-step check of information to decide how useful or true it is
A careful look at small parts to find tiny differences
A careful, close look at something to find small details
Looking at something again to check it
How Thorough
Surface Forms
Morphology
fine-toothed + review
The phrase is compositionally built from 'fine' + 'toothed' + 'review', so a learner can guess 'fine-toothed' literally means 'having small/close teeth' and infer a sense of precision. However, understanding it as 'thorough, detailed' depends on recognizing the conventional 'fine-tooth comb' metaphor (i.e., combing closely) which is not strictly predictable from the parts for many B1 learners, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase fine-toothed review comes from a fine-toothed comb, which has very close teeth that catch tiny bits. So a review done like that means 'a very careful and detailed check' because you are looking closely for small mistakes.