blame vs vindicate

blame

verb
  • To censure (someone or something); to criticize. 

  • To assert the cause of some bad event. 

  • To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative). 

noun
  • Culpability for something negative or undesirable. 

  • A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code. 

  • Censure. 

  • Responsibility for something meriting censure. 

vindicate

verb
  • To clear of an accusation, suspicion or criticism. 

  • To provide justification for. 

  • To lay claim to; to assert a right to; to claim. 

  • To maintain or defend (a cause) against opposition. 

  • To justify by providing evidence. 

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