cute vs dainty

cute

adj
  • Sexually attractive or pleasing; gorgeous. 

  • Evincing cleverness; surprising in its elegance or unconventionality (but of limited importance). 

  • Mentally keen or discerning (See also acute) 

  • Lovable, charming, attractive or pleasing, especially in a youthful, dainty, quaint or fun-spirited way. 

  • Possessing physical features, behaviors, personality traits or other properties that are mainly attributed to infants and small or cuddly animals; e.g. fair, dainty, round, and soft physical features, disproportionately large eyes and head, playfulness, fragility, helplessness, curiosity or shyness, innocence, affectionate behavior. 

  • Affected or contrived to charm; mincingly clever; precious; cutesy. 

dainty

adj
  • Elegant; delicately small and pretty. 

  • Fastidious and fussy, especially when eating. 

noun
  • A delicacy (in taste). 

  • A fancy cookie, pastry, or square, frequently homemade, served at a social event. 

How often have the words cute and dainty occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )