Wiktionary
n. Any of various large lizards of the genus ''Varanus'', native to Africa, Asia and Australia, that are carnivorous.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Monitor lizard is the common name of several large lizard species, comprising the genus Varanus. They are native to Africa, Asia and Oceania, but are now found also in the Americas as an invasive species. A total of 78 species are currently recognized.
Monitor lizards have long necks, powerful tails and claws, and well-developed limbs. The adult length of extant species ranges from in some species, to over in the case of the Komodo dragon, though the extinct varanid known as megalania (Varanus priscus) may have been capable of reaching lengths of more than . Most monitor species are terrestrial, but arboreal and semiaquatic monitors are also known. While most monitor lizards are carnivorous, eating eggs, smaller reptiles, fish, birds and small mammals, some also eat fruit and vegetation, depending on where they live.
Usage examples of "monitor lizard".
With its tail curled, the dead monitor lizard is roughly the length of a sawed-off fungo bat, and stout enough to require a firm two-handed swing.
The monitor lizard had stopped at its edge and now looked up at Soldiers face.
There was some milling around amid the squirrel people, then a lone figure stepped out of the little crowd -- this one appeared to be a nineteenth-century French dandy with the head of a monitor lizard.
The thing is just a monitor lizard, and yet it is massive to a degree that is unreal.
They were gathered around Clay's giant monitor, which, for all the good it was doing them, could have been a giant monitor lizard.
Sean whetted the blade of his trench knife on thQ,palm of his hand and then helped Matatu butcher the monitor lizard.
A large, powerful monitor lizard hissed but made room for the newcomers.
But sharing the floor with them was a female with green hair and wearing what appeared to be a dress made of leaves who was dancing alone, a couple of elves, two fox couples, a pine marten dancing with a large monitor lizard, and a pair of beautiful young sloe‑.
But sharing the floor with them was a female with green hair and wearing what appeared to be a dress made of leaves who was dancing alone, a couple of elves, two fox couples, a pine marten dancing with a large monitor lizard, and a pair of beautiful young sloe-eyed men, dark and graceful, with the hindquarters and horn-buds of young goats, who were dancing together in a sensuous way that made Joe blush as badly as the blonde girl had.
They passed a gray monitor lizard lounging inconspicuously in the gray dry mud of the bank.
There were trunks of elephants, tongues of the buffalo and fillets of Nubian mountain goat, the flesh of wild boar and warthog, gazelle and Nubian ibex, of monitor lizard and python, of crocodile and hippopotamus, oxen and sheep.
This species of monitor lizard has been so modified that it now bears little resemblance to the original.
A six-foot monitor lizard walked across their path, saw them, and disappeared with a scuttle.