anneal : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: anneal	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for anneal
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
anneal v bring to a desired consistency, texture, or hardness by a process of gradually heating and cooling; "temper glass" Synonym(s): anneal, temper, normalize
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Anneal \An*neal"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Annealed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Annealing}.] [OE. anelen to heat, burn, AS. an[?]lan; an on + [?]lan to burn; also OE. anelen to enamel, prob. influenced by OF. neeler, nieler, to put a black enamel on gold or silver, F. nieller, fr. LL. nigellare to blacken, fr. L. nigellus blackish, dim. of niger black. Cf. {Niello}, {Negro}.] 1. To subject to great heat, and then cool slowly, as glass, cast iron, steel, or other metal, for the purpose of rendering it less brittle; to temper; to toughen. 2. To heat, as glass, tiles, or earthenware, in order to fix the colors laid on them.