| 释义 |
(as) cute as a button (as) cute as a buttonPleasing in appearance and/or temperament. This phrase is most often applied to children and females. Your little girl is as cute as a button in that frilly dress. Katie is pretty and has such a sweet disposition—she's as cute as a button.See also: button, cutecute as a buttonAlso, 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. See also: button, cute(as) cute as a ˈbutton (American English) (usually used about a baby or a child, or somebody/something small) very attractive and charming: Kate is four, and as cute as a button!See also: button, cutecute as a buttonDaintily attractive. The word “cute” dates from the seventeenth century. It was originally an abbreviation of acute and had the same meaning: clever, shrewd, ingenious. In America, however, it came to be applied to attractive persons or things, those with an appearance of dainty charm rather than outright beauty. A button is small and round; so are some cute objects. For some reason this simile took hold in the early twentieth century. The synonym cute as a bug’s ear similarly alludes to something very small—and in fact nonexistent (bugs don’t have ears).See also: button, cute |