Crossword Genius

Give stress treatment to girl pursued by eagle regularly (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

anneal

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'give stress treatment to' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'girl pursued by eagle regularly' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'anne' (girl's name).
'pursued by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternate letters of 'eagle' are 'al'.
'anne'+'al'='ANNEAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for anneal that I've seen before include "Heat and cool to temper or toughen" , "Toughen using heat" , "toughening process" , "Treat (metal, glass) with heat" , "Heat and cool slowly in order to toughen" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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