De*sign" (?; 277), 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.
2. To mark out and exhibit; to designate; to
indicate; to show; to point out; to appoint.
We shall see
Justice design the victor's chivalry.
Shak.
Meet me to-morrow where the master
And this fraternity shall design.
Beau. &
Fl.
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.
4. To intend or purpose; -- usually with
for before the remote object, but sometimes with
to.
Ask of politicians the end for which laws were
originally designed.
Burke.
He was designed to the study of the
law.
Dryden.
Syn. -- To sketch; plan; purpose; intend; propose; project;
mean.
De*sign", v. i. To form a design
or designs; to plan.
Design for, to intend to go to. [Obs.]
"From this city she designed for Collin [Cologne]."
Evelyn.
De*sign" (?), 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.
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.
The vast design and purpos&?; of the
King.
Tennyson.
The leaders of that assembly who withstood the
designs of a besotted woman.
Hallam.
A . . . settled design upon another man's
life.
Locke.
How little he could guess the secret designs of
the court!
Macaulay.
3. Specifically, intention or purpose as
revealed or inferred from the adaptation of means to an end; as, the
argument from design.
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.
5. (Mus.) The invention and conduct of
the subject; the disposition of every part, and the general order of
the whole.
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.
Is he a prudent man . . . that lays designs
only for a day, without any prospect to the remaining part of his
life?
Tillotson.
I wish others the same intention, and greater
successes.
Sir W. Temple.
It is the purpose that makes strong the
vow.
Shak.
