softly, softly, catchee monkey
softly, softly, catchee monkey phrase: proceed cautiously or gently to achieve an objective.
Phrase
softly, softly, catchee monkey
- Proceed cautiously or gently to achieve an objective.
- "Prudens qui patiens," was the motto of our great Coke : a motto which the negro pithily paraphrases — "Softly, softly, catch monkey."1840, Archer Polson, James Grant, Law and Lawyers; or, Sketches and Illustrations of Legal History and Biography, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans, →OCLC
- It is a West Coast proverb, which says, “Softly, softly, catchee monkey."1896 March, Robert Baden-Powell, “The Native Levy in the Ashanti Expedition, 1895-96”, in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, volume 40, London: J. J. Keliher & Co., page 305
- Capture a target without startling it and causing it to run away.
- Softly, softly, catchee monkey, I thought to myself....slow and sure was the way with a woman like this.2013 March 31, Gina Hoisington, “The Logic of My Anger: A Sociopath's Tale of Vengeance”, in BDSM Library
Examples of softly, softly, catchee monkey in a sentence
- "Softly, softly, catchee monkey!" Not by making a row, but by cunning and kindness1920, John Hargrave, The Wigwam Papers and Totem Talks, London: C. Arthur Pearson, →OCLC, page 33:
- Having failed to secure a Press Council of the sort they wanted, they are now trying, in a small way, to get something established — on the old principle of ‘Softly, softly, catchee monkey.’1950, “Conference Conundrums”, in The Journal – Institute of Journalists, volume 38, page 148:
Forms of softly, softly, catchee monkey
| alternative form | softly, softly caught the monkey |
|---|---|
| alternative form | softly, softly catch a monkey |
Origin of softly, softly, catchee monkey
Uncertain. Commentators refer to a variety of African languages or nations, but generally lack specific detail. Benham's Book of Quotations suggests the phrase originated from Black English, but is unclear. Compare the Wolof proverb, Ndànk-ndànk, mooy jàpp golo ci ñaay (“Slowly, slowly one catches a monkey in the forest”). Although the phrase is attested with non-standard assonant catchee mainly from the twentieth century, Eric Partridge suggests it was probably coined in the late nineteenth. Quotations from the mid-nineteenth century use catch or caught the monkey.
Questions about softly, softly, catchee monkey
- What does softly, softly, catchee monkey mean?
- Softly, softly, catchee monkey means proceed cautiously or gently to achieve an objective.
- How do you use softly, softly, catchee monkey in a sentence?
- "Softly, softly, catchee monkey!" Not by making a row, but by cunning and kindness
- What part of speech is softly, softly, catchee monkey?
- Softly, softly, catchee monkey is a phrase.
Words near softly, softly, catchee monkey in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: softly, softly, catchee monkey (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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