Noun

(en noun)

A canopy over a bed.

*1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , III.13:

*: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.

* Walpole

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

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=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 great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.}}

Something that overhangs something else; especially a canopy or soundboard over a pulpit.

*1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby Dick) , :

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.

Noun

(en noun)

A person who administers a test.

A device used for testing.

(Australia, slang, obsolete) A punishment of 25 lashes (strokes of a whip) across a person?s back.1987 , , 1996, paperback, ISBN 1-86046-150-6, Chapter 12.

A sample of perfume available in a shop for customers to try before they buy.

Noun

(en noun)

An old French silver coin.

(UK, slang, dated) A sixpence.