activate vs spoil

activate

verb
  • To render more reactive; excite. 

  • To organize or create a military unit or station. 

  • To bring a player back after an injury. 

  • To put a device, mechanism (alarm etc.) or system into action or motion; to trigger, to actuate, to set off, to enable. 

  • To render a substance radioactive. 

  • To hasten a chemical reaction, especially by heating. 

  • To remove the limitations of demoware by providing a license; to unlock. 

  • To render a molecule reactive, active, or effective in performing its function. 

  • To encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate. 

  • To aerate in order to aid decomposition of organic matter. 

spoil

verb
  • To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess. 

  • To reveal the ending or major events of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time. 

  • To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it. 

  • Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay. 

  • To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use. 

  • To reduce the lift generated by an airplane or wing by deflecting air upwards, usually with a spoiler. 

noun
  • Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings. Such material could be utilised somewhere else. 

  • Plunder taken from an enemy or victim. 

How often have the words activate and spoil occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )