The main meaning of 可愛くない is of course "not cute", but I think I've heard/seen the word in other contexts, too. Is it possible for 可愛くない to be a kind of insult, like "loser" maybe? Especially when it's used for boys?
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4Do you have any particular example context(s) you'd like to add to your question, so people can comment on how they'd interpret it in those specific examples?– user1478Sep 5, 2018 at 20:13
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Unfortunately not at the moment. I just read a scene in a manga where a girl says about a boy (her friend) that he's 可愛くない, but there's no further context. I just think it doesn't mean "he's not cute" (or maybe I just think that because I would never say that in English?)– PruneSep 6, 2018 at 6:34
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2「素直じゃない」・「可愛いげがない(可愛いげのない～)」て意味でも使いますよね– Chocolate ♦Sep 10, 2018 at 3:55
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2 Answers
可愛い has a wide variety of meanings, but in your case it probably means "adorable", "innocent", "docile" or "childlike". For example, if a 9-year-old boy refuses to help his mom after saying a sarcastic and argumentative remark about money, that can be 可愛くない.
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At least in anime it's imho often used as a joke in that the target person of such remark wouldn't have wanted to be called 可愛い in the first place– NoxArtSep 6, 2018 at 8:16
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True, something like that isn't ... it was probably a wrong term, well ... I imagined it in a more lighthearted way (perhaps like teasing) so it probably depends on intonation...– NoxArtSep 6, 2018 at 11:43
I sometimes see it used in the sense of "mean" or "ungrateful":
お前は可愛くない性格だな。
You're not very nice.
せっかくドーナツ買ってきてあげたのに可愛くない！
I bought you donuts and you're not even thankful!
