monitor

mon·i·tor   (mŏn'ĭ-tər)    n.   One that admonishes, cautions, or reminds, especially with respect to matters of conduct. A pupil who assists a teacher in routine duties. A usually electronic device used to record, regulate, or control a process or system. 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. Computer Science A device that accepts video signals from a computer and displays information on a screen; a video display. A heavily ironclad warship of the 19th century with a low, flat deck and one or more gun turrets. A modern warship designed for coastal bombardment. Computer Science A program that observes, supervises, or controls the activities of other programs. An articulated device holding a rotating nozzle with which a jet of water is regulated, used in mining and firefighting. A heavily ironclad warship of the 19th century with a low, flat deck and one or more gun turrets. A modern warship designed for coastal bombardment. 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). v.   mon·i·tored, mon·i·tor·ing, mon·i·tors v.   tr. To check the quality or content of (an electronic audio or visual signal) by means of a receiver. 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. 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. To test or sample, especially on a regular or ongoing basis: monitored the city's drinking water for impurities. To keep close watch over; supervise: monitor an examination. To direct. v.   intr. To act as a monitor. [Latin, from monēre, to warn; see men-1 in Indo-European roots.] mon'i·tor·ship' n.

Monitor

Mon"i*tor\, n. [L., fr. monere. See Monition, and cf. Mentor.]

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. (Zo["o]l.) 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.

Monitor top, the raised central portion, or clearstory, of a car roof, having low windows along its sides.

monitor 

Main Entry: ¹mon·i·tor
Pronunciation: 'män-&t-&r
Function: noun
: one that monitors; especially : adevice for observing or measuring a biologically important condition or function monitor>

monitor mon·i·tor (mŏn'ĭ-tər)
n.
A usually electronic device used to record, regulate, or control a process or system. v. mon·i·tored, mon·i·tor·ing, mon·i·tors

monitor   (mŏn'ĭ-tər)  Pronunciation Key  A device that accepts video signals from a computer and displays information on a screen. Monitors generally employ cathode-ray tubes or flat-panel displays to project the image. See Note at pixel.

monitor
1. A cathode-ray tube and associated electronics connected to a computer's video output. A monitor may be either monochrome (black and white) or colour (RGB). Colour monitors may show either digital colour (each of the red, green and blue signals may be either on or off, giving eight possible colours: black, white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow) or analog colour (red, green and blue signals are continuously variable allowing any combination to be displayed). Digital monitors are sometimes known as TTL because the voltages on the red, green and blue inputs are compatible with TTL logic chips.
See also gamut, multisync, visual display unit.
2. A programming language construct which encapsulates variables, access procedures and initialisation code within an abstract data type. The monitor's variable may only be accessed via its access procedures and only one process may be actively accessing the monitor at any one time. The access procedures are critical sections. A monitor may have a queue of processes which are waiting to access it.
3. A hardware device that measures electrical events such as pulses or voltage levels in a digital computer.
4. To oversee a program during execution. For example, the monitor function in the Unix C library enables profiling of a certain range of code addresses. A histogram is produced showing how often the program counter was found to be at each position and how often each profiled function was called.
Unix man page: monitor(3).
5. A control program within the operating system that manages the allocation of system resources to active programs.
6. A program that measures software performance.