anneal
verb /əˈniːl/
/əˈniːl/
(specialist)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they anneal | /əˈniːl/ /əˈniːl/ |
| he / she / it anneals | /əˈniːlz/ /əˈniːlz/ |
| past simple annealed | /əˈniːld/ /əˈniːld/ |
| past participle annealed | /əˈniːld/ /əˈniːld/ |
| -ing form annealing | /əˈniːlɪŋ/ /əˈniːlɪŋ/ |
- anneal something to heat metal or glass and allow it to cool slowly, in order to make it softer and easier to shape (= more ductile)Word OriginOld English onǣlan, from on + ǣlan ‘burn, bake’ from āl ‘fire, burning’. The original sense was ‘set on fire’, hence (in late Middle English) ‘subject to fire, alter by heating’.