anneal

an·neal

vt \ə-ˈnē(ə)l\

Definition of ANNEAL

1

: to heat and then cool (as steel or glass) usually for softening and making less brittle

2

: to heat and then cool (double-stranded nucleic acid) in order to separate strands and induce combination at lower temperatures especially with complementary strands

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>