cute as a button

Idioms and Phrases

Also, cute as a bug's ear . Pretty or attractive in a dainty way, as in That baby is cute as a button. Cute originally was a shortening of acute , for “sharp-witted and clever,” but in the early 1800s it also took on its current meaning. Other than that buttons and bug's hearing organs can be small, there is no good explanation for these similes.