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anneal
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As a verb, anneal means subject to great heat and then (often slow) cooling, and sometimes reheating and further cooling, for the purpose of rendering less brittle. As a noun, it means an act of annealing.
Meanings of anneal
7 meaningsverb
metallurgyTo subject to great heat and then (often slow) cooling, and sometimes reheating and further cooling, for the purpose of rendering less brittle; to temper; to toughen.
To cool glass slowly, to minimize internal stress.
geneticsTo make a double-stranded nucleic acid by pairing a single strand with a complementary strand.
Older and rare meanings (2)
archaicTo burn colors onto a glass or other surface.
figurativearchaicpoeticTo strengthen or harden.
“The experience annealed them, strengthening their resolve.”
noun
chemistrymetallurgyAn act of annealing.
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).