about-face vs regress

about-face

noun
  • A reversal in direction; a reversal of attitude or opinion. 

  • An abrupt turn to face the opposite direction. 

verb
  • To turn 180 degrees to face the opposite direction. 

  • To change opinion or attitude drastically. 

regress

noun
  • The act of passing back; passage back; return; retrogression. 

  • In property law, the right of a person (such as a lessee) to return to a property. 

  • The power or liberty of passing back. 

verb
  • To move backwards to an earlier stage; to devolve. 

  • To move from east to west. 

  • To perform a regression on an explanatory variable. 

  • To interrogate a person in a state of trance about forgotten elements of their past. 

How often have the words about-face and regress occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )