design

From Middle English designen, from Old French designer, from Latin designō (“I mark out, point out, describe, design, contrive”), from de- (or dis-) + signō (“I mark”), from signum (“mark”). Doublet of designate.

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈzaɪn/
• Hyphenation: de‧sign

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

design (countable and uncountable, plural designs)

1. A specification of an object or process, referring to requirements to be satisfied and thus conditions to be met for them to solve a problem.
2. A plan (with more or less detail) for the structure and functions of an artifact, building or system.

   The initial design of the park was rejected for being too expensive.

3. A pattern, as an element of a work of art or architecture.

   We're working on some new designs for our range of summer shirts

4. The composition of a work of art.
5. Intention or plot.

   We have designs on winning the league next season.

   To be hateful of the truth by design.

   • 1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisisana, PG, page 40:

     I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure.

   • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools‎^[1], volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202:

     At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]

   • 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Lisicki will rise from her current ranking of 62 to at least 35 in the world on the back of her efforts at the All England Club, but she will have serious designs on a first Grand Slam title after overcoming the 2007 runner-up.

   1. (particularly) Malicious or malevolent intention.

      To have evil designs.

6. The shape or appearance given to an object, especially one that is intended to make it more attractive.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.

7. The art of designing

   Danish furniture design is world-famous.

• (plan): See Thesaurus:diagram
• (intention): See Thesaurus:design

design (third-person singular simple present designs, present participle designing, simple past and past participle designed)

1. (transitive) To plan and carry out (a picture, work of art, construction etc.).

   He always designs gaming laptops from 4:00 pm to 1:00 am.

   [from 17th c.]

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     She designed his retirement from the Royal Irish Artillery, and had negociated an immediate berth for him on the Staff of the Commander of the Forces, and a prospective one in the household of Lord Townshend […]

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To plan (to do something).

   The king designed to mount an expedition to the New World.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To assign, appoint (something to someone); to designate. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, chapter I, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 10:

     he looks not below the Moon, but hath designed the regiment of sublunary affairs unto inferiour deputations.

   • 1700, John Dryden, Translations from Ovid's Epistles, Preface:

     He was designed to the study of the law.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To mark out and exhibit; to designate; to indicate; to show; to point out; to appoint.
5. To manifest requirements to be satisfied by an object or process for them to solve a problem.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     We shall see / Justice design the victor's chivalry.

   • 1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Knight of Malta”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii:

     Meet me to-morrow where the master / And this fraternity shall design.

• “design”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “design”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “design”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• design on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Edgins, deigns, dinges, gnides, nidges, sdeign, signed, singed

• IPA^(key): [ˈdɪzajn]

design m inan

1. design

• “design”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “design”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995

Borrowed from English design.

• IPA^(key): /diˈzɑi̯n/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧sign

design n (plural designs, no diminutive)

1. design

   Synonyms: ontwerp, vormgeving

Unadapted borrowing from English design.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdisɑi̯n/, [ˈdis̠ɑ̝i̯n]
• Rhymes: -isɑin
• Syllabification^(key): de‧sign
• Hyphenation^(key): de‧sign

design

1. design

   Synonym: suunnittelu

• “design”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

Borrowed from English design. Doublet of dessein.

• IPA^(key): /di.zajn/

design m (plural designs)

1. design

• dizájn

Borrowed from English design, from Latin designō (“I mark out, describe, plan”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈdizaːjn]
• Hyphenation: de‧sign
• Rhymes: -aːjn

design (countable and uncountable, plural designok)

1. design (art and profession of designing functional objects such as furniture, vehicles, household appliances, etc.)

   Synonym: formatervezés

See at dizájn.

• dizájn in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

Borrowed from English design.

• IPA^(key): /deˈzajn/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ajn

design m (invariable)

1. design (industrial)

• sdegni

design

1. imperative of designe

• dizajn

Unadapted borrowing from English design, from Middle English designen, from Old French designer, from Latin dēsignō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdi.zajn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -izajn
• Syllabification: de‧sign
• Homophone: dizajn

design m inan

1. (design) design (plan of usable objects)

   Synonyms: wzornictwo; wzornictwo przemysłowe

2. (design) design (appearance of usable objects)

   Hypernym: wygląd

• design in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• design in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English design. Doublet of desenhar and designar.

design m (plural designs)

1. design (plan for the structure and functions of an object or system)

   Synonyms: projeto, desenho

2. design (aesthetically pleasing shape or appearance of an object)
3. design (the art of designing aesthetically pleasing things)

• “design”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “design”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Unadapted borrowing from English design.

design n (uncountable)

1. design

Borrowed from English design. First attested in 1948.

• IPA^(key): /dɛˈsajn/

design c

1. (countable, uncountable) design

   Synonym: (artistic) formgivning

• designa
• designer
• designpris

• design in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• design in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

• gnides