design

Etymology

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.

noun

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.
   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. 1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisisana, PG, page 40
   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 […] 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202
   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. 28 June 2011, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport
   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.
   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. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess
7. The art of designing
   Danish furniture design is world-famous.

verb

1. (transitive) To plan and carry out (a picture, work of art, construction etc.).
   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 […] 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
   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. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess
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.
   He was designed to the study of the law. 1700, John Dryden, Translations from Ovid's Epistles, Preface
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.