noun

• (obsolete or dialect) A corn; grain; kernel.
• (obsolete or dialect) The last handful or sheaf reaped at the harvest.
• (obsolete or dialect) The harvest home.
• (obsolete or dialect) A doll or figurine raised in celebration of a successful harvest; kern-baby.

noun

• (hot metal printing, typography) Any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter.
  "A few types have a portion of the face letter projecting over the body, as in the letter f ; this projection is called the kern, and in combination with other letters the projecting part generally extends over the next letter, as in fe. In those combinations, wherein the kern would come in contact with another letter, compound types are cast, as in the case of ff, fi, fl, ffi, ffl."

verb

• (typography, chiefly proportional font printing) 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."

noun

• (archaic or 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."
• (obsolete or Ireland) A boor; a low person.
  "Yet it was held that the testimony of the common beadle of the parish, an officer of police, a vulgar, stupid kern, who stood before your own eyes, a very dolt to look on, in all the stark-staring hebetude of just wit enough to be spiteful—was to be credited as to the sense and meaning of an oration, his understanding was to be respected, and his representation trusted, where the Lord Chief Justice of England was in error."
• (obsolete, UK) An idler; a vagabond.
  "The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here."