The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Design \De*sign"\ (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Designed; p.
   pr. & vb. n. Designing.] [F. d['e]signer 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.
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   2. To mark out and exhibit; to designate; to indicate; to
      show; to point out; to appoint.
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            We shall see
            Justice design the victor's chivalry. --Shak.
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            Meet me to-morrow where the master
            And this fraternity shall design.     --Beau. & Fl.
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   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.
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   4. To intend or purpose; -- usually with for before the
      remote object, but sometimes with to.
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            Ask of politicians the end for which laws were
            originally designed.                  --Burke.
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            He was designed to the study of the law. --Dryden.

   Syn: To sketch; plan; purpose; intend; propose; project;
        mean.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Designing \De*sign"ing\, a.
   Intriguing; artful; scheming; as, a designing man.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Designing \De*sign"ing\, n.
   The act of making designs or sketches; the act of forming
   designs or plans.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

designing
    adj 1: concealing crafty designs for advancing your own
           interest; "a selfish and designing nation obsessed with
           the dark schemes of European intrigue"- W.Churchill; "a
           scheming wife"; "a scheming gold digger" [syn:
           designing, scheming]
    n 1: the act of working out the form of something (as by making
         a sketch or outline or plan); "he contributed to the design
         of a new instrument" [syn: design, designing]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

88 Moby Thesaurus words for "designing":
   Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, abstract art, acute, arch,
   art, art form, artful, artist, arts and crafts, arts of design,
   astute, cagey, calculating, calligraphy, canny, cave art, ceramics,
   clever, collusive, connivent, conniving, conspiring, contriving,
   crafty, crooked, cunning, cute, deceitful, decoration, deep,
   deep-laid, design, devious, diplomatic, double-dealing, engraving,
   etching, feline, fine arts, folk art, foxy, graphic arts, guileful,
   ingenious, insidious, intriguing, inventive, knowing, pawky,
   photography, plastic art, plotting, politic, primitive art, ready,
   resourceful, scheming, sculpture, serpentine, sharp, shifty,
   shrewd, slick, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky, sophistical,
   stealthy, stratagemical, strategic, subtile, subtle, supple,
   tactical, the arts, treacherous, trickish, tricksy, tricky,
   underhanded, up to, vulpine, wary, wily