Dictionary entry

Tester

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Tes″ter (?), n. [OE. testere a headpiece, helmet, OF. testiere, F. têtière a head covering, fr. OF. teste the head, F. tête, fr. L. testa an earthen pot, the skull. See Test a cupel, and cf. Testière.] 1. A headpiece; a helmet.

The shields bright, testers, and trappures. Chaucer.

2. A flat canopy, as over a pulpit or tomb. Oxf. Gross.

3. A canopy over a bed, supported by the bedposts.

No testers to the bed, and the saddles and portmanteaus heaped on me to keep off the cold. Walpole.