tester Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun someone who administers a test to determine your qualifications
    quizzer; examiner.
  2. noun a flat canopy (especially one over a four-poster bed)

WordNet

Tes"ter noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  1. A headpiece; a helmet. Obs.
    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.
Tes"ter noun
Etymology
For testern, teston, fr. F. teston, fr. OF. teste the head, the head of the king being impressed upon the coin. See Tester a covering, and cf. Testone, Testoon.
Definitions
  1. An old French silver coin, originally of the value of about eighteen pence, subsequently reduced to ninepence, and later to sixpence, sterling. Hence, in modern English slang, a sixpence; -- often contracted to tizzy. Called also teston. Shak.

Webster 1913