bird dog vs tell

bird dog

verb
  • To seek out. 

  • A multiservice tactical brevity code requesting configuration of sensors. 

  • To watch closely. 

noun
  • A dog, especially a pointer, used in shooting to retrieve the dead birds. 

  • A tout. 

  • A person who seeks out real estate investment opportunities in exchange for a fee. 

  • A person who tries to steal someone else's romantic partner 

  • A radar detector (for detecting police speed traps). 

  • A hyperextension exercise performed lying on the knees, with one arm and the opposite leg lifted. 

tell

verb
  • To reveal. 

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

  • To instruct or inform. 

  • To narrate. 

  • To convey by speech; to say. 

  • 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 bird dog and tell occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )