Showing results for "designing"

• present participle of design.

designing

American  

[dih-zahy-ning] / dɪˈzaɪ nɪŋ /

adjective

1. scheming; intriguing; artful; crafty.

   Synonyms:

   sly, tricky, cunning, wily

2. showing or using forethought.

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noun

1. the act or art of making designs.

designing British  

/ dɪˈzaɪnɪŋ /

adjective

1. artful and scheming; conniving; crafty

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Other Word Forms

• well-designing
  adjective
• designingly
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of designing

First recorded in 1610–20; design + -ing ², -ing ¹

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Explanation

The adjective designing describes those who secretly scheme to get what they want, even if it means cheating others, like the designing group member who tricks everyone else into doing all the work for their shared project. You might incorrectly assume designing means "creative," in the sense of a fashion designer, but instead of beautiful clothing, the designing person dreams only of his or her own best interests — before anyone else's. Someone who’s designing plans ahead to make sure things go his way, even if it means lying or making other people look bad. A good synonym for designing is scheming.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

designing

Unveiling the Roadster with out-of-this-world technology reiterated that Musk has given up designing cars for regular people to drive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

If future studies confirm the calculations, the findings could provide an important foundation for designing more efficient fusion systems and help researchers make better decisions about reactor construction.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026

For much of the past year, Meta has been embroiled in a series of legal actions, accused of deliberately designing products that are addictive to young users.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Last year, the chemistry prize went to Japan's Susumu Kitagawa, UK-born Richard Robson and American-Jordanian Omar Yaghi for developing a method of designing molecular structures.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

They put in another two hours researching the market, designing the UI, and getting started on the wireframe and storyboard.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon

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