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

Etymology

Origin of designing

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

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

Yet the company excluded the majority of those harms from its public reports, designing its metrics so that many of the worst encounters were never captured.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

California led a coalition of states that accused Meta of designing Instagram and Facebook to hook minors, harvest their data and deceive the public.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

The research found six candidates, but none worked on RAS, so Verdine proposed designing a synthetic glue instead.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

The finding led the team to a new strategy for designing condensation surfaces.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026

But her resolve melted when she saw him before her, seated there beside her in the little garden, as if a designing Providence had led him into her path.

From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin