apply oneself vs do one's damnedest

apply oneself

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

do one's damnedest

verb
  • To do one's utmost; to make every effort or to try every possible approach or way. 

How often have the words apply oneself and do one's damnedest occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )