monitor

[mon-i-ter] /ˈmɒn ɪ tər/
noun
1.
a student appointed to assist in the conduct of a class or school, as to help take attendance or keep order.
2.
a person appointed to supervise students, applicants, etc., taking an examination, chiefly to prevent cheating; proctor.
3.
a person who admonishes, especially with reference to conduct.
4.
something that serves to remind or give warning.
5.
a device or arrangement for observing, detecting, or recording the operation of a machine or system, especially an automatic control system.
6.
an instrument for detecting dangerous gases, radiation, etc.
7.
Radio and Television.
  1. a receiving apparatus used in a control room, especially to provide a steady check of the quality of an audio or video transmission.
  2. a similar apparatus placed in various parts of a studio so that an audience can watch a recorded portion of a show, the performer can see the various segments of a program, etc.
  3. any such receiving apparatus used in a closed-circuit system, as in an operating room.
8.
Computers.
  1. a component, as a CRT, with a screen for viewing data at a computer terminal.
  2. a control program.
    Compare operating system.
  3. a group of systems used to measure the performance of a computer system.
9.
Nautical.
  1. a former U.S. steam-propelled, armored warship of very low freeboard, having one or more turrets and used for coastal defense.
  2. (initial capital letter, italics) the first of such warships, used against the Confederate ironclad warship Merrimac at Hampton Roads, Va., in 1862.
10.
a raised construction straddling the ridge of a roof and having windows or louvers for lighting or ventilating a building, as a factory or warehouse.
11.
an articulated mounting for a nozzle, usually mechanically operated, which permits a stream of water to be played in any desired direction, as in firefighting or hydraulic mining.
12.
Also called giant. (in hydraulic mining) a nozzle for dislodging and breaking up placer deposits with a jet of water.
13.
any of various large lizards of the family Varanidae, of Africa, southern Asia, the East Indies, and Australia, fabled to give warning of the presence of crocodiles: several species are endangered.
verb (used with object)
14.
Radio and Television.
  1. to listen to (transmitted signals) on a receiving set in order to check the quality of the transmission.
  2. to view or listen to (television or radio transmissions) in order to check the quality of the video or audio.
  3. to listen to (a radio conversation or channel); keep tuned to.
15.
to observe, record, or detect (an operation or condition) with instruments that have no effect upon the operation or condition.
16.
to oversee, supervise, or regulate:
to monitor the administering of a test.
17.
to watch closely for purposes of control, surveillance, etc.; keep track of; check continually:
to monitor one's eating habits.
verb (used without object)
18.
to serve as a monitor, detector, supervisor, etc.
Origin
1540-50; < Latin: prompter, adviser, equivalent to moni-, variant stem of monēre to remind, advise, warn + -tor -tor
Related forms
monitorship, noun
self-monitoring, adjective
unmonitored, adjective
Examples from the web for monitor
  • Limit kids' exposure to screens of any kind, and monitor what they are allowed to watch.
  • Workers in a boat monitor the device as it fills with water.
  • Clients are paid monthly, and Alibris offers online reporting for booksellers to monitor sales.
  • Tests using floating nucleic acids could diagnose disease, monitor pregnancy and weed out "mad" cows.
  • The subjects then watched names of the items flash across a monitor.
  • We watch on the video monitor.
  • But ignoring the need for that, and the consequences of failure to monitor, is not responsible or educated.
  • Financial monitor sees limited subprime fallout.
  • The volunteer has been holding a monitor to the turtle's heart.
  • The display is essentially a super-sized version of the 24-inch monitor already available.
British Dictionary definitions for monitor

monitor

/ˈmɒnɪtə/
noun
1.
a person or piece of equipment that warns, checks, controls, or keeps a continuous record of something
2.
(education)
  1. a senior pupil with various supervisory duties
  2. a pupil assisting a teacher in classroom organization, etc
3.
a television screen used to display certain kinds of information in a television studio, airport, etc
4.
the unit in a desk computer that contains the screen
5.
  1. a loudspeaker used in a recording studio control room to determine quality or balance
  2. a loudspeaker used on stage to enable musicians to hear themselves
6.
a device for controlling the direction of a water jet in fire fighting
7.
any large predatory lizard of the genus Varanus and family Varanidae, inhabiting warm regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia See also Komodo dragon
8.
(mining) Also called giant. a nozzle for directing a high-pressure jet of water at the material to be excavated
9.
(formerly) a small heavily armoured shallow-draught warship used for coastal assault
verb (transitive)
10.
to act as a monitor of
11.
to observe or record (the activity or performance) of (an engine or other device)
12.
to check (the technical quality of) (a radio or television broadcast)
Derived Forms
monitorial (ˌmɒnɪˈtɔːrɪəl) adjective
monitorially, adverb
monitorship, noun
monitress, noun:feminine
Word Origin
C16: from Latin, from monēre to advise
Word Origin and History for monitor
n.

1540s, "senior pupil at a school charged with keeping order, etc.," from Latin monitor "one who reminds, admonishes, or checks," also "an overseer, instructor, guide, teacher," agent noun from monere "to admonish, warn, advise," related to memini "I remember, I am mindful of," and to mens "mind," from PIE root *men- "to think" (see mind (n.)).

The type of lizard so called because it is supposed to give warning of crocodiles (1826). Meaning "squat, slow-moving type of ironclad warship" (1862) so called from name of the first vessel of this design, chosen by the inventor, Swedish-born U.S. engineer John Ericsson (1803-1889), because it was meant to "admonish" the Confederate leaders in the U.S. Civil War. Broadcasting sense of "a device to continuously check on the technical quality of a transmission" (1931) led to special sense of "a TV screen displaying the picture from a particular camera."

v.

1818, "to guide;" 1924, "to check for quality" (originally especially of radio signals), from monitor (n.). General sense from 1944. Related: Monitored; monitoring.

monitor in Medicine

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 in Science
    monitor
      (mŏn'ĭ-tər)   
    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 in Technology

    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.