barb vs slam

barb

noun
  • A hurtful or disparaging remark. 

  • One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane. 

  • A barbiturate. 

  • Armor for a horse. 

  • The sciaenid fish Menticirrhus americanus, found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. 

  • A blackish or dun variety of pigeon, originally brought from Barbary. 

  • Paps, or little projections, of the mucous membrane, which mark the opening of the submaxillary glands under the tongue in horses and cattle. The name is mostly applied when the barbs are inflamed and swollen. 

  • The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else. 

  • A hair or bristle ending in a double hook. 

  • Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family. 

  • A beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it. 

  • A plastic fastener, shaped roughly like a capital I (with serifs), used to attach socks etc. to their packaging. 

  • The Barbary horse, a superior breed introduced from Barbary into Spain by the Moors. 

verb
  • To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc. 

  • To cut (hair). 

  • To cover a horse in armor. 

slam

noun
  • An insult. 

  • Losing or winning all the tricks in a game. 

  • A slambook. 

  • The shock and noise produced by violently closing a door or other object. 

  • Winning all (or all but one) of the available, major or specified events in a given year or sports season. 

  • A subgenre of death metal with elements of hardcore punk focusing on midtempo rhythms, breakdowns and palm-muted riffs 

  • A slam dunk. 

  • A card game, played all at once without separate turns, in which players attempt to get rid of their cards as quickly as possible according to certain rules. 

  • A sudden impact or blow. 

  • A poetry slam. 

  • A bid of six (small slam) or seven (grand slam) in a suit or no trump. 

  • The yellow iron silicate produced in alum works as a waste product. 

  • One of the competitions of the yearly Grand Slam events. 

verb
  • To defeat or overcome in a match. 

  • To move a customer from one service provider to another without their consent. 

  • To compete in a poetry slam. 

  • To dunk forcefully, to slam dunk. 

  • To defeat (opponents at cards) by winning all the tricks of a deal or a hand. 

  • To make a slam bid. 

  • To occupy and busy with a high workload. 

  • To strike against suddenly and heavily. 

  • To shut with sudden force so as to produce a shock and noise. 

  • To speak badly of; to criticize forcefully. 

  • To strike and take the life of or at least incapacitate for some time. 

  • To perform coitus upon forcefully; to rail. 

  • To inject intravenously; shoot up. 

  • To put in or on a particular place with force and loud noise. (Often followed by a preposition such as down, against or into.) 

  • To drink off, to drink quickly. 

  • To strike forcefully with some implement. 

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