kern

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A medieval Scottish or Irish foot soldier.
2. n. A loutish person.
3. n. The portion of a typeface that projects beyond the body or shank of a character.
4. v. To provide (type) with a kern.
5. v. To adjust space between (characters) in typeset text.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A corn; grain; kernel.
2. n. In printing, that part of a type which projects beyond the body or shank, as in the Roman letters f and j as formerly made and some italic letters.
3. n. The last handful or sheaf of grain cut down at the close of the harvest. Also called kern-cut.
4. n. A harvest-home.
5. To form corns or grains; take the form of corns or grains; granulate; harden, as corn in ripening; set, as fruit or grain.
6. To granulate, as salt by evaporation.
7. To sow with corn.
8. To cause to granulate, as salt by evaporation.
9. In type-founding, to form with a kern or projection, as-a type or letter.
10. A dialectal (unassibi-lated) form of churn.
11. n. A dialectal form of quern.
12. n. In the ancient militia of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, a light-armed foot-soldier of the lowest and poorest grade, armed with a dart or skean: opposed to gallowglass, a heavy-armed soldier. The word is sometimes used in a collective sense.
13. n. Hence —2. An Irish churl or boor; by extension, any ignoble person; a drudge; a bumpkin.
14. n. In English law, an idle person or vagabond.

Wiktionary

1. n. A corn; grain; kernel.
2. n. typography any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter.
3. v. typography To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters (characters or glyphs); to perform such adjustments to a portion of text, according to preset rules.
4. n. A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt.
5. n. Alternative form of quern.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; -- distinguished from gallowglass, and often used as a term of contempt.
2. n. obsolete Any kind of boor or low-lived person.
3. n. (O. Eng. Law) An idler; a vagabond.
4. n. (Type Founding) A part of the face of a type which projects beyond the body, or shank, such as in certain italic letters.
5. v. (Type Founding) To form with a kern. See 2d kern.
6. n. Prov. Eng. A churn.
7. n. A hand mill. See quern.
8. v. obsolete To harden, as corn in ripening.
9. v. obsolete To take the form of kernels; to granulate.
10. n. Kernel; corn; grain.
11. n. The last handful or sheaf reaped at the harvest.
12. n. The harvest-home.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. remove a portion of space between (adjacent letters)
2. n. the part of a metal typeface that projects beyond its body
3. v. furnish with a kern
4. n. United States composer of musical comedies (1885-1945)