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

• designingly adverb
• well-designing adjective

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

They set about designing the fastest car they can based on objective data.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland wrote in a Friday note that Arm’s move to diversify its business beyond designing processors for smartphones, in addition to its CPU opportunities, bode well for the stock.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 27, 2026

Purdue’s attorneys said in court that the company played no role in designing the claims process.

From Salon • Apr. 24, 2026

That would be Elon Musk, chief executive and founder of SpaceX, which for years has ranged far ahead of Bezos’ companies’ efforts in building rockets, designing satellites and extending humans’ reach into space.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

When designing Iris, JPL accounted for catastrophic landing failure.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir