Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cleverly, smartly, esp. with implication of ‘too smart for one’s own good’.

1762		Foote Orators in Works (1799) I 194: I did speechify once at a vestry concerning new lettering the church buckets, and came off cutely enough.
1840		Comic Almanack Feb. 217: The gang were taken, and the law / Fell cute to prosecute.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 58: Talkin’ cute, looks knavish; but talkin’ soft, looks sappy. Nothing will make a feller bark up a wrong tree like that.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 12: The women fall for that kid [...] He handles ’em cute.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 181: Don’t let him get one home on either of you, or else you’re done; fence him off, and fight cute.
1944		R. Martin ‘Tea Party Frame-Up’ in Mammoth Detective May 🌐 Don’t act so cute.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 24: Joey had been playing it cute.
1959		H. Ellison ‘No Game for Children’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 78: Don’t play cute with me, Bruce.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 122: They decided to play it cute.