anneal \uh-NEEL\, verb:
1. To toughen or temper.
2. To heat (glass, earthenware, metals, etc.) to remove or prevent internal stress.
3. To free from internal stress by heating and gradually cooling.
4. To fuse colors onto (a vitreous or metallic surface) by heating.
Bracelets and spiral-headed pins of copper, and also of gold, which is even easier toanneal, appear almost at once.
-- Leon E. Stover, Bruce Kraig, Stonehenge: the Indo-European Heritage
The sinister imputations that could be drawn from that damning conversation on the tape, and her acceptance of their treachery, had only served to anneal her mind.
-- Barbara Taylor Bradford, A Woman of Substance
Anneal has ancient roots in the Old English root anǣlan, "to kindle."
