What does "absurdly" mean?

“. . . but after a swim in the pool he changed into white shorts and a Cochet shirt. He looked then quite absurdly young.”–THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE by W. Somerset Maugham
What can the adverb “absurdly” mean in the above sentence?
Does it mean “to a very surprising extent” or “ridiculously”?
How would you feel if you were told that you were absurdly young?

‘absurdly’ = ‘absolutely’, but nobody says you face to face that you are ‘absurdly young’ - it sounds rudely.
They can say you that you are ‘very young’, ‘pretty young’.
But you can say to your friend that your ‘chief looks absurdly young’ (like a gossip).

1 Like

“ridiculously”

1 Like

so extreme as to be considered absurd/ridiculous

To say that someone “looks quite absurdly young” is to say that it is an absurd notion that someone could look so young. It’s like saying, “He’s almost 40, but looks like he just graduated from high school.”

How would you feel if you were told that you were absurdly young?

There is quite a difference between being told that you ARE absurdly young and you LOOK absurdly young. If someone told me, “You look absurdly young,” I would take that as a compliment. If someone said to me, “You’re absurdly young.” I would probably give them a puzzled look and say, “What do you mean?”

1 Like

Thank you for the comments.
I feel that I should not use this expression because it is absurdly risky for non-native speakers.