kern UK /kɜːn/US /kɝn/noun 9verb 1forms 3 noun9 •Any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter. •A churn. •(no longer used, historical) A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt.O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait strossers. — 1599 •(Ireland, no longer used) A boor; a low person.To think that such a lowly kern Should dare to dream to be allied By wedlock to a royal bairn! — 1903 •(UK, no longer used) An idler; a vagabond.The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here. — 1856 •(dialect, no longer used) A corn; grain; kernel. •(dialect, no longer used) The last handful or sheaf reaped at the harvest. •(dialect, no longer used) The harvest home. •(dialect, no longer used) A doll or figurine raised in celebration of a successful harvest; kern-baby. verb1 •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.If you need to kern anything beyond the most commonly used pairs, you can use applications software such as Adobe PageMaker to customize pairs. — 2001 formskerned · kerning · kerns
