batten vs bloom

batten

verb
  • To thrive, prosper, or live in luxury, especially at the expense of others; fare sumptuously. 

  • To furnish with battens. 

  • To fasten or secure a hatch etc using battens. 

  • To thrive by feeding; grow fat; feed oneself gluttonously. 

  • To fertilize or enrich, as land. 

  • To improve by feeding; fatten; make fat or cause to thrive due to plenteous feeding. 

  • To gratify a morbid appetite or craving; gloat. 

  • To feed (on); to revel (in). 

  • To become better; improve in condition, especially by feeding. 

noun
  • A thin strip of wood used in construction to hold members of a structure together or to provide a fixing point. 

  • A long strip of wood, metal, fibreglass etc., used for various purposes aboard ship, especially one inserted in a pocket sewn on the sail in order to keep the sail flat. 

  • The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof. 

  • In stagecraft, a long pipe, usually metal, affixed to the ceiling or fly system in a theater. 

bloom

verb
  • Of a person, business, etc, to flourish; to be in a state of healthful, growing youth and vigour; to show beauty and freshness. 

  • To cause to blossom; to make flourish. 

  • To bring out the flavor of a spice by cooking it in oil. 

  • To bestow a bloom upon; to make blooming or radiant. 

  • Of a plant, to produce blooms; to open its blooms. 

noun
  • A state or time of beauty, freshness, and vigor; an opening to higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms. 

  • A yellowish deposit or powdery coating which appears on well-tanned leather. 

  • Rosy colour; the flush or glow on a person's cheek. 

  • Anything giving an appearance of attractive freshness. 

  • The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open. 

  • A bright-hued variety of some minerals. 

  • The delicate, powdery coating upon certain growing or newly-gathered fruits or leaves, as on grapes, plums, etc. 

  • A blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud. 

  • Flowers. 

  • A white area of cocoa butter that forms on the surface of chocolate when warmed and cooled. 

  • An undesirable halo effect that may occur when a very bright region is displayed next to a very dark region of the screen. 

  • The increase in bullet spread over time as a gun's trigger is kept held. 

  • The spongy mass of metal formed in a furnace by the smelting process. 

  • The clouded appearance which varnish sometimes takes upon the surface of a picture. 

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