air cushion vs cushion

air cushion

noun
  • A rubber or plastic inflatable cushion. 

  • A shock absorber that uses an air chamber. 

  • A layer of trapped air that supports a hovercraft. 

cushion

noun
  • A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support; for sitting on, kneeling on, resting one's head on etc. 

  • a sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective. 

  • A pad on which gilders cut gold leaf. 

  • The lip around a table in cue sports which absorbs some of the impact of the billiard balls and bounces them back. 

  • A mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston. 

  • An engraver's pad. 

  • Money kept in reserve. 

  • The pillow used in making bone lace. 

  • A pad supporting a woman's hair. 

  • The rubber of an electrical machine. 

  • The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself. 

verb
  • To furnish with cushions. 

  • To absorb or deaden the impact of. 

  • To seat or place on, or as on a cushion. 

  • To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion. 

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