Tes"ter (?), n. [OE. testere a headpiece, helmet, OF. testiere, F. tetiere a head covering, fr. OF. teste the head, F. tete, fr. L. testa an earthen pot, the skull. See Test a cupel, and cf. Testiere.]
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.
© Webster 1913.
Tes"ter, n. [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.]
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.