WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Mon"i*tor
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [L., fr. monere. See Monition, and cf. Mentor.]
Definition : 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?l.)

Defn: 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. Etym: [So called from the name given by Captain Ericson, its designer, to the first ship of the kind.]

Defn: An ironclad war vessel, very low in the water, and having one or more heavily-armored revolving turrets, carrying heavy guns.

5. (Mach.)

Defn: 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.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913