mon|i|tor

mon|i|tor «MON uh tuhr», noun, verb.

–noun.

1. a pupil in school with special duties, such as helping to keep order and taking attendance: »

Several of the older boys in school serve as monitors on the playground.

2. a person who gives advice or warning: »

The Teamsters Union, which has been battling to rid itself of court-appointed monitors (Wall Street Journal).

3. something that reminds or gives warning: »

Conscience…a most importunate monitor, paying no respect to persons and making cowards of us all (Frederick Marryat).

4. a low, armored warship having one or more revolving turrets, each with one or two heavy guns. It was used chiefly in the late 1800's.

5. any one of a family of large, carnivorous lizards of Africa, southern Asia, Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Monitors are from 4 to 10 feet long, have a forked tongue and the habit of swallowing their prey without chewing it, and exhibit other snakelike characteristics. They are the only living genus of their family, the dragon lizard or dragon of Komodo being the most familiar, and are known to have lived in America from the fossils found in Wyoming. »

All of the zoo's tenants were at their best, but the…giant lizards or monitors virtually stole the show (New York Times).

6. a receiver or other device used for checking and listening to radio or television transmissions, telephone messages, or other electronic signals as they are recorded or broadcast: »

When a monitor or headphone connection is provided, it will be “live” even during recording (Roy J. Hoopes).

7. a screen upon which computer-generated output is displayed: »

Displays, whether on a TV screen or a monitor, typically show 23 to 25 rows (a row is the equivalent of a line of type on a paper page) (Consumer Reports).

–transitive verb, intransitive verb.

1. a) to check and listen to (radio or television transmissions, telephone messages, or other electronic signals) by using a monitor, specially to check the quality, wave frequency, or the like. b) to listen to (broadcasts or telephone messages) for censorship, military significance, or other surveillance: »

He noted that agency investigators have been monitoring broadcasts and telecasts since last fall (Wall Street Journal).

2. Physics. to test the intensity of radiations, especially of radiations produced by radioactivity.

3. to check in order to control something: »

Hearing aids now play a life-saving role in the operating room by monitoring the breathing of unconscious surgical patients (Science News Letter).

╂[< Latin monitor, -ōris < monēre to admonish]