watchdog

IPA: wˈɑtʃdɔg

A guard dog.
(figurative) An individual or group that monitors the activities of another entity (such as an individual, corporation, non-profit group, or governmental organization) on behalf of the public to ensure that entity does not behave illegally or unethically.
(electronics, computing) Ellipsis of watchdog timer. [An electronic or software timer used to detect and recover from computer malfunctions by generating a timeout signal if it is not periodically reset by the system.]

Examples of "watchdog" in Sentences

Japan's market watchdog is looking into allegations of illegal stock trading on a wide scale.
The UK police watchdog is finally looking into the widespread use of anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers by cops.
I love the term watchdog whilstleblower has a “rat fink” type of conotation and “watchdog” doesn’t we need a movement
A government bailout watchdog is now reviewing the transaction, triggered by a request from Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican.
But couldn't the Republicans have used the word "watchdog," which is the standard term, or at least found some other gender-neutral expression?
WASHINGTON — A government watchdog is investigating government-owned GMAC Mortgage after a company employee admitted to approving thousands of foreclosures without reading the paperwork.
The British food watchdog is asking fast-food restaurants to add calorie-counts to their menus -- and want to adopt a set of "traffic light" labels that indicate dangerously high levels of salt, fat, sugar (or, presumably, eyeball-gnawing maggots, see post below).