GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 3 definitions

  1.       
    
    Design , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Designed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Designing.] [F. désigner to designate, cf. F. dessiner to draw, dessin drawing, dessein a plan or scheme; all, ultimately, from L. designare to designate; de- + signare to mark, mark out, signum mark, sign. See Sign, and cf. Design, n., Designate.]
    1. To draw preliminary outline or main features of; to sketch for a pattern or model; to delineate; to trace out; to draw.
      Dryden.

      1913 Webster
    2. To mark out and exhibit; to designate; to indicate; to show; to point out; to appoint.
      1913 Webster

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

      1913 Webster

      Meet me to-morrow where the master
      And this fraternity shall design.
      Beau. & Fl.

      1913 Webster

    3. To create or produce, as a work of art; to form a plan or scheme of; to form in idea; to invent; to project; to lay out in the mind; as, a man designs an essay, a poem, a statue, or a cathedral.
      1913 Webster
    4. To intend or purpose; -- usually with for before the remote object, but sometimes with to.
      1913 Webster

      Ask of politicians the end for which laws were originally designed.
      Burke.

      1913 Webster

      He was designed to the study of the law.
      Dryden.

      Syn. -- To sketch; plan; purpose; intend; propose; project; mean.

      1913 Webster

  2.       
    
    Design, v. i. To form a design or designs; to plan.
    1913 Webster

    Design for, to intend to go to. [Obs.] “From this city she designed for Collin [Cologne].”

    Evelyn.

    1913 Webster

  3.       
    
    Design , n. [Cf. dessein, dessin.]
    1. A preliminary sketch; an outline or pattern of the main features of something to be executed, as of a picture, a building, or a decoration; a delineation; a plan.
      1913 Webster
    2. A plan or scheme formed in the mind of something to be done; preliminary conception; idea intended to be expressed in a visible form or carried into action; intention; purpose; -- often used in a bad sense for evil intention or purpose; scheme; plot.
      1913 Webster

      The vast design and purpose of the King.
      Tennyson.

      1913 Webster

      The leaders of that assembly who withstood the designs of a besotted woman.
      Hallam.

      1913 Webster

      A . . . settled design upon another man's life.
      Locke.

      1913 Webster

      How little he could guess the secret designs of the court!
      Macaulay.

      1913 Webster

    3. Specifically, intention or purpose as revealed or inferred from the adaptation of means to an end; as, the argument from design.
      1913 Webster
    4. The realization of an inventive or decorative plan; esp., a work of decorative art considered as a new creation; conception or plan shown in completed work; as, this carved panel is a fine design, or of a fine design.
      1913 Webster
    5. (Mus.) The invention and conduct of the subject; the disposition of every part, and the general order of the whole.
      1913 Webster

      Arts of design, those into which the designing of artistic forms and figures enters as a principal part, as architecture, painting, engraving, sculpture. -- School of design, one in which are taught the invention and delineation of artistic or decorative figures, patterns, and the like.

      Syn. -- Intention; purpose; scheme; project; plan; idea. -- Design, Intention, Purpose. Design has reference to something definitely aimed at. Intention points to the feelings or desires with which a thing is sought. Purpose has reference to a settled choice or determination for its attainment. “I had no design to injure you,” means it was no part of my aim or object. “I had no intention to injure you,” means, I had no wish or desire of that kind. “My purpose was directly the reverse,” makes the case still stronger.

      1913 Webster

      Is he a prudent man . . . that lays designs only for a day, without any prospect to the remaining part of his life?
      Tillotson.

      1913 Webster

      I wish others the same intention, and greater successes.
      Sir W. Temple.

      1913 Webster

      It is the purpose that makes strong the vow.
      Shak.

      1913 Webster