kern

noun

1. a part of the face of a type projecting beyond the body or shank, as in certain italic letters.

verb (used with object)

2. to form or furnish with a kern, as a type or letter.
3. to remove a portion of space between (adjacent letters) in preparation for printing.

noun Engineering.

1. the central area of any horizontal section of a wall, column, etc., within which the resultant forces of all compressive loads must pass if there is to be only compression at that point.

noun Archaic.

1. a band of lightly armed foot soldiers of ancient Ireland.
2. (in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands) a soldier.
3. an Irish peasant, especially a crude or boorish one.

verb (used without object)

1. (of a tree or plant) to produce or form kernels, hard grain, or seed.

verb (used with object)

2. to cause to granulate, especially to granulate salt.
3. to cover with crystalline grains of salt; salt (meat).

noun

4. Obsolete. a kernel, as of a nut; a grain, as of sand or wheat.

verb (used with or without object), noun Scot. and North England.

1. churn.

noun Scot. and North England.

1. kirn².

noun

1. Jerome (David),1885–1945, U.S. composer.
2. a river in E California, in the Sierra Nevada, flowing S and SW to San Joaquin Valley. 155 miles (249 km) long.

noun

1. the part of the character on a piece of printer’s type that projects beyond the body

verb

2. (tr) to furnish (a typeface) with a kern

noun

1. a lightly armed foot soldier in medieval Ireland or Scotland
2. a troop of such soldiers
3. archaic a loutish peasant

noun

1. engineering the central area of a wall, column, etc, through which all compressive forces pass

noun

1. Jerome (David). 1885–1945, US composer of musical comedies, esp Show Boat (1927)

n.

1680s, “part of a metal type projecting beyond the body,” as the head of an -f- or the tail of a -j-, from French carne “projecting angle, quill of a pen,” from Latin cardinem “hinge.”