tester

Noun (1)

tester (plural testers)

1. A canopy over a bed.
   • And I could as hardly spare my gloves as my shirt, or forbeare washing of my hands both in the mornng and rising from the table, or lye in a bed without a testerne and curtaines about it, as of most necessary things.1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, volume III, page 13
   • The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane half tester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the...1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
2. Something that overhangs something else; especially a canopy or sounding board over a pulpit.
   • With our shaggy jackets drawn about our shoulders, we now passed the Tomahawk from one to the other, till slowly there grew over us a blue hanging tester of smoke, illuminated by the flame of the new-lit lamp.1851, Herman Melville, chapter 11, in Moby Dick

Noun (2)

tester (plural testers)

1. A person who administers a test.
2. A device used for testing.
3. (Australia, obsolete, slang) A punishment of 25 lashes (strokes of a whip) across a person′s back.

   Synonyms:

   Botany Bay dozen

4. A sample of perfume available in a shop for customers to try before they buy.
5. A miniature pot of paint for testing and comparison purposes.
6. A cyclist who focuses on success in time trials.

Noun (3)

tester (plural testers)

1. An old French silver coin.
2. (UK, dated, slang) A sixpence.
   • When after their beaſtly ſport and pleaſure Mounſieur Libid[inoſo] heat of luſt was ſomewhat aſſwaged, and ready to goe, féeling his pocket for a venereall remuneration [i.e., a copper coin] finds nothing but a Teſter, or at leaſt ſo little, that it was not ſufficient to pleaſe dame Pleaſure for...1602, S[amuel] R[owlands], “How a Citizen was Serued by a Curtizan”, in Greenes Ghost Havnting Conie-catchers. […], London: Printed [by Peter Short?] for R[oger] Iackson, and I. North, […], →OCLC...

   Synonyms:

   teston, tizzy

Proper noun capitalized: Tester

IPA/ˈtɛstə(ɹ)/

Tester (plural Testers)

1. A surname from Old French.
   • But only if one forgets that Mr. Tester is 50 years old, he’s seasoned in state politics, he ran a canny, gloves-off campaign, and he’s the kind of charismatic, hard-to-peg, Western neopopulist (like his friend, Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana) who might be, even now, redefining in certain...2007 January 7, Deirdre Mcnamer, “They Came From Montana”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021