I. əˈnēl, -ēəl transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English anelen, from Old English onǣlan, from on on + ǣlan to set on fire, burn, bake, from āl fire; akin to Old Norse eldr fire, Old English ād funeral pyre — more at edify
1. : to heat (as glass) in order to fix laid-on colors
2.
a. : to heat and then cool usually for softening and rendering less brittle, gradual cooling being required for some materials (as steel and glass) but not for others (as copper and brass) — compare temper
b. : to process (structural-clay products) by slow cooling after subjection to heat in order to prevent checking, cracking, and warping
annealed paving brick
3. : strengthen , toughen
a man rocklike in endurance, rocklike in insensibility, annealed by a simple, rigorous religion — Lionel Trilling
II. noun
( -s )
: the act, process, or result of annealing
III. verb
transitive verb
: to heat and then cool (nucleic acid) in order to separate strands and induce combination at lower temperatures especially with complementary strands of a different species
intransitive verb
: to be capable of combining with complementary nucleic acid by a process of heating and cooling
some bacterial nucleic acid anneals well with eukaryotic DNA