monitor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that admonishes, cautions, or reminds, especially with respect to matters of conduct.
2. n. A pupil who assists a teacher in routine duties.
3. n. A usually electronic device used to record, regulate, or control a process or system.
4. n. A receiver, such as a screen or speaker, that is used to check the quality or content of an electronic transmission: followed the broadcast on the television monitor.
5. n. Computer Science A device that accepts video signals from a computer and displays information on a screen; a video display.
6. n. Computer Science A program that observes, supervises, or controls the activities of other programs.
7. n. An articulated device holding a rotating nozzle with which a jet of water is regulated, used in mining and firefighting.
8. n. A heavily ironclad warship of the 19th century with a low, flat deck and one or more gun turrets.
9. n. A modern warship designed for coastal bombardment.
10. n. Biology Any of various tropical carnivorous lizards of the family Varanidae, living in the East Indies, southern Asia, Africa, Australia, and New Guinea and ranging in length from several centimeters to 3 meters (10 feet).
11. v. To check the quality or content of (an electronic audio or visual signal) by means of a receiver.
12. v. To check by means of an electronic receiver for significant content, such as military, political, or illegal activity: monitor a suspected criminal's phone conversations.
13. v. To keep track of systematically with a view to collecting information: monitor the bear population of a national park; monitored the political views of the people.
14. v. To test or sample, especially on a regular or ongoing basis: monitored the city's drinking water for impurities.
15. v. To keep close watch over; supervise: monitor an examination.
16. v. To direct.
17. v. To act as a monitor.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who warns of faults or informs of duty; an admonisher; one who gives advice and instruction by way of reproof or caution; an admonisher.
2. n. A senior pupil in a school appointed to instruct and look after a junior division or class; a pupil appointed to superintend other pupils; in some American colleges, a student appointed to keep a record of the attendance of the other students upon certain exercises, as morning prayers.
3. n. 3. A constable or officer of the law.
4. n. A backboard.
5. n. [capitalized] In herpetology, the typical genus of Monitoridæ, so called because one of the species was fabled to admonish man of the presence of the crocodile of the Nile. Also called Varanus.
6. n. A lizard of the genus Monitor or family Monitoridæ. See cut under Hydrosaurus.
7. n. A heavily armored iron-clad steam-vessel with a very low free-board, of a type invented by Ericsson, carrying on deck one or more revolving turrets, each containing one or more great guns, and designed to combine the maximum of gun-power with the minimum of exposure: so called from the name of the first vessel of the type, which was built during the American civil war, and in 1862 arrested the destructive course of the Confederate iron-clad ram Merrimac.
8. n. A raised part of a roof, usually fitted with openings for light and ventilation, as in a passenger-car or omnibus. See monitor-roof.
9. n. In hydraulics, a device consisting of a universal-jointed pipe, to which is attached a nozle throwing a powerful stream of water: used in hydraulic mining and on fire-boats. See hydraulic mining, under hydraulic.
10. n. A turret or tool-holder in a lathe. See turret, 6.
11. n. Same as catamaran, 4.
12. To be a monitor or adviser to; admonish.

Wiktionary

1. n. Someone who watches over something; a person in charge of something or someone.
2. n. computing A device similar to a television set used as to give a graphical display of the output from a computer.
3. n. computing A program for viewing and editing, as in machine code monitor.
4. n. UK A student leader in a class.
5. n. nautical A class of relatively small armored warships designed for shore bombardment or riverine warfare rather than combat with other ships.
6. n. archaic An ironclad.
7. n. A monitor lizard.
8. v. transitive To watch over; to guard.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who admonishes; one who warns of faults, informs of duty, or gives advice and instruction by way of reproof or caution.
2. n. Hence, specifically, a pupil selected to look to the school in the absence of the instructor, to notice the absence or faults of the scholars, or to instruct a division or class.
3. n. (Zoöl.) Any large Old World lizard of the genus Varanus; esp., the Egyptian species (Varanus Niloticus), which is useful because it devours the eggs and young of the crocodile. It is sometimes five or six feet long.
4. n. An ironclad war vessel, very low in the water, and having one or more heavily-armored revolving turrets, carrying heavy guns.
5. n. (Mach.) A tool holder, as for a lathe, shaped like a low turret, and capable of being revolved on a vertical pivot so as to bring successively the several tools in holds into proper position for cutting.
6. n. A monitor nozzle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a piece of electronic equipment that keeps track of the operation of a system continuously and warns of trouble
2. n. someone who supervises (an examination)
3. n. someone who gives a warning so that a mistake can be avoided
4. v. keep tabs on; keep an eye on; keep under surveillance
5. n. any of various large tropical carnivorous lizards of Africa and Asia and Australia; fabled to warn of crocodiles
6. v. check, track, or observe by means of a receiver
7. n. electronic equipment that is used to check the quality or content of electronic transmissions
8. n. an ironclad vessel built by Federal forces to do battle with the Merrimac
9. n. display produced by a device that takes signals and displays them on a television screen or a computer monitor