batter vs knock

batter

noun
  • A player of the batting side now on the field. 

  • A beaten mixture of flour and liquid (usually egg and milk), used for baking (e.g. pancakes, cake, or Yorkshire pudding) or to coat food (e.g. fish) prior to frying. 

  • A paste of clay or loam. 

  • An incline on the outer face of a built wall. 

  • A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form. 

  • A binge; a heavy drinking session. 

  • The player attempting to hit the ball with a bat. 

  • The player now receiving strike; the striker. 

  • Any player selected for his or her team principally to bat, as opposed to a bowler. 

verb
  • To defeat soundly; to thrash. 

  • To hit or strike violently and repeatedly. 

  • To intoxicate. 

  • To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly. 

  • To coat with batter (the food ingredient). 

  • To slope (of walls, buildings etc.). 

knock

noun
  • A batsman's innings. 

  • An abrupt rapping sound, as from an impact of a hard object against wood. 

  • A sharp impact. 

  • A blow or setback. 

  • Preignition, a type of abnormal combustion occurring in spark ignition engines caused by self-ignition; also, the characteristic knocking sound associated with it. 

  • Synonym of hunger knock 

  • A criticism. 

verb
  • To criticize verbally; to denigrate; to undervalue. 

  • To kick a ball towards another player; to pass. 

  • To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood. 

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