As Cute as a box of Monkeys?

[curiosity]

Used this term today in a group of 14 people, only two of us had heard it before and understood it to mean clever, cunning, astute. The others hadn't heard the word Cute used in this context. Anyone know where this comes from?

[shaneystar]

I have always said it as ....
Artful as a cartload of monkeys.
Where the saying comes from I have no idea !
Cute as a box of monkeys sounds like an Americanism.
Cute can also mean artful or cunning.
No help whatsoever really !!!

[curiosity]

Not at all thanks for that, I'm in the North East of England, one in the group was from Hull originally, and totally puzzled by it.

[THECORBYLOON]

"Cute" meaning smart or cunnning comes from "acute" meaning perceptive or shrewd.

[HeratthePC]

I've heard cute used in that way by my mother and grandmother in Northern Ireland. There tends to be quite a bit of overlap between Northern Irish dialect and Northern English / Scottish.

[curiosity]

Yes I think that also, from Liverpool upwards there's the big Irish influence, my Great Grandmother was from County Cork.

[al60uk]

I've only ever heard this in birmingham as "As cute as a cartload of monkeys", cute meaning astute or cleverly underhand.

[Greenstripe]

My uncle, who was 2nd or 3rd generation Brummy of Irish descent, often used the phrase "Crafty as a Cartload of Monkeys" to describe someone who was sly or, well, Crafty! He spent his all his life in Birmingham.

[Duffer49]

My grandma used to describe one of her grandsons as "cute as a barrelful of monkeys." She was from central Manchester, and moved to Stockport at 19.