four-poster

1. attributivenot comparableHaving four vertical columns, one in each corner, that support a tester, so that curtains can be hung to exclude draughts from the sleeper.

   The furnishing of this Blue Room was solid and Victorian, it having been the GHQ of my Uncle Tom's late father, who liked things substantial. There was a four-poster bed, [...]

   1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII

plural four-posters

1. A four-poster bed, which has four high posts, one at each corner, supporting a canopy.

   ... the bed, an immense four-poster with different rosewood fruits carved crudely on its high headboard, was suffocatingly soft and his body had sunk deep in its feathery center.

   1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 2

   1 more example

   Wooden beds were made as replicas of large ones, some carved in walnut, others in mahogany and with elaborate head-pieces. There were four-posters draped with curtains to pull and bedspreads to match, much beautiful hand-sewing and embroidery going to their manufacture.

   1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 214

   Synonyms: four-poster bed