The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word ANNEAL
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
A
N
N
E
A
L
More clues leading to the result ANNEAL
- Queen with extremely awful temper
- Queen wanting Arsenal's sides to toughen up
- Finishes off any new ale — one way to work on glass
- Record-breaking European is to toughen up
- Female gangster’s temper
- British queen with a Latin temper
- English queen with a Latin temper
- Princess has limits to awful temper
- Girl, a student, put through toughening process
- Girl with a Latin temper
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "to toughen up" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case to toughen up = anneal.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does ANNEAL mean?
ANNEAL noun- An act of annealing.
- To subject to great heat and then (often slow) cooling, and sometimes reheating and further cooling, for the purpose of rendering less brittle; to temper; to toughen.
- To cool glass slowly, to minimize internal stress.
- To burn colors onto a glass or other surface.
- To make a double-stranded nucleic acid by pairing a single strand with a complementary strand.
- To strengthen or harden.