colloq. Also ’cute. [Aphetic form of ACUTE a. 7.]
1. Acute, clever, keen-witted, sharp, shrewd.
1731. Bailey, vol. II., Cute, sharp, quick-witted.
1756. Toldervy, Two Orphans, II. 39. ‘You may think as you please,’ said parson Drill: ‘but I take him to be a very cute one.’
1777. in Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), II. 279. I didn’t pity the man for having such a cute answer made him.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge (1849). 26/1. ‘He will be a ’cute man yet,’ resumed the locksmith.
1848. Lowell, Biglow P., Poems, 1890, II. 47. Aint it cute to see a Yankee Take sech everlastin’ pains [etc.]?
2. (U.S. Colloq. and School-boy slang.) Used of things in same way as CUNNING a. 6.
1868. G. E. Hughes, in T. Hughes, Mem. Brother (1873), 155. His study is awfully ’cute (= ‘tidy and full of knick-knacks’).
