kern

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The portion of a typeface that projects beyond the body or shank of a character.
• transitive verb To provide (type) with a kern.
• transitive verb To adjust space between (characters) in typeset text.
• noun A medieval Scottish or Irish foot soldier.
• noun A loutish person.

from The Century Dictionary.

• A dialectal (unassibi-lated) form of churn.
• noun A dialectal form of quern.
• noun 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.
• noun Hence —2. An Irish churl or boor; by extension, any ignoble person; a drudge; a bumpkin.
• noun In English law, an idle person or vagabond.
• To form corns or grains; take the form of corns or grains; granulate; harden, as corn in ripening; set, as fruit or grain.
• To granulate, as salt by evaporation.
• To sow with corn.
• To cause to granulate, as salt by evaporation.
• In type-founding, to form with a kern or projection, as-a type or letter.
• noun A corn; grain; kernel.
• noun 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.
• noun The last handful or sheaf of grain cut down at the close of the harvest. Also called kern-cut.
• noun A harvest-home.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A corn; grain; kernel.
• noun A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt.
• noun Alternative form of quern.
• noun typography any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter.
• verb 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.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb remove a portion of space between (adjacent letters)
• noun the part of a metal typeface that projects beyond its body
• verb furnish with a kern
• noun United States composer of musical comedies (1885-1945)