softly, softly, catchee monkey

Meaning

Phrase

• Proceed cautiously or gently to achieve an objective.
• Capture a target without startling it to run away.

Origin

• Although the phrase is attested with non-standard 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 softly, softly caught the monkey. Benham's Book of Quotations suggests the phrase originated from Black English, but this is uncertain.