beard vs tell

beard

verb
  • To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt. 

  • To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded. 

  • Of a gay man or woman: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex in order to give the impression that they are heterosexual. 

  • Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape. 

  • To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills. 

noun
  • The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds. 

  • The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes. 

  • In insects, the hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies. 

  • The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster. 

  • Long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn. 

  • The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle. 

  • A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out. 

  • That part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle. 

  • A fake customer or companion, especially a woman who accompanies a gay man, or a man who accompanies a lesbian, in order to give the impression that the person being accompanied is heterosexual. 

  • The byssus of certain shellfish. 

  • Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck. 

tell

verb
  • To convey by speech; to say. 

  • To order; to direct, to say to someone. 

  • To instruct or inform. 

  • To narrate. 

  • To reveal. 

  • To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement -- contrasted with show 

  • To count, reckon, or enumerate. 

  • To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated. 

  • To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing. 

  • To discern, notice, identify or distinguish. 

  • To be revealed. 

  • To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer. 

noun
  • A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper. 

  • A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements. 

  • A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold. 

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