To anneal metal means to heat it up until it glows, then let it cool down slowly and carefully. This process makes the metal softer, easier to bend or shape, and less likely to crack or shatter when you work with it.

Blacksmiths and metalworkers anneal metal when they need to reshape it. Imagine trying to bend a stiff wire: it might snap. But if you anneal it first, heating it red-hot and letting it cool gradually, that same wire becomes flexible enough to bend into curves or loops without breaking. Jewelers anneal silver and gold repeatedly while crafting intricate designs. Glassblowers also anneal their finished pieces in special ovens, because glass can behave similarly to metal when heated and cooled.

What makes annealing special is the slow, controlled cooling, which matters most. Rush the cooling and the metal stays brittle. Take your time, and you transform something rigid into something workable. Scientists use annealing as a metaphor in other fields too: computer programmers “anneal” algorithms by testing them repeatedly to work out problems, much like heating and cooling metal relieves internal stresses.