cute

To be pleasing 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.

very cute. (*Also: as ~.) That little baby is cute as a bug's ear.

to be very attractive At 14, she was as cute as a button and the boys were starting to notice her.

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.