apply oneself vs dally

apply oneself

verb
  • Synonym of strive: to work hard, to complete an activity with good effort and focus. 

dally

noun
  • Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping. 

verb
  • To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle. 

  • To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal 

  • To delay unnecessarily; to while away. 

  • To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet 

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