student asking question

What does "offensive" really mean here?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Here, "offensive" means to cause a strong reaction that makes someone upset. It's similar to shocking, annoying, and improper. If something is too different and out of the ordinary, people sometimes get "offended" and upset by how different it is! Here they're saying that the watch is "different" but not "different" enough for people to be offended. It's just the right amount of different. Ex: My dad seemed offended when I said I would dye my hair pink. Ex: Terry's ideas were so different that they offended a lot of people. Ex: Personally, I didn't think the art was offensive. Why are people so upset?

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