资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Design \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.

   Usage: {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.