monitor Meaning, Definition & Usage

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

WordNet

Mon"i*tor noun
Etymology
L., fr. monere. See Monition, and cf. Mentor.
Definitions
  1. One who admonishes; one who warns of faults, informs of duty, or gives advice and instruction by way of reproof or caution.
    You need not be a monitor to the king. Bacon.
  2. 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. (Zoöl.) Any large Old World lizard of the genus Varanus; esp., the Egyptian species (V. Niloticus), which is useful because it devours the eggs and young of the crocodile. It is sometimes five or six feet long.
  4. So called from the name given by Captain Ericson, its designer, to the first ship of the kind. An ironclad war vessel, very low in the water, and having one or more heavily-armored revolving turrets, carrying heavy guns.
  5. (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.

Webster 1913