adjective

• Acting in a calculating, deceitful way.

  ‘she was a designing little minx’

  More example sentences

  • ‘It is not conjured up by cunning and designing men.’
  • ‘Although good ethics exist in the profession of law, nevertheless the profession is not without the unscrupulous cunning, and designing fellow members.’
  • ‘The second is artful, cunning, and designing; shielding the rich man from the possibility of being entrapped, and affecting at the same time, to have a tender and scrupulous regard, for the interests of the whole community.’
  • ‘She is a weak, unintelligent girl; he a strong, cunning, and designing man.’
  • ‘Without such a check, the press, in the hands of evil and designing men, would become a most formidable engine, and as mighty for mischief as for good.’

  Synonyms

  scheming, calculating, conniving, plotting, intriguing, conspiring

  View synonyms