bowstring vs skein

bowstring

noun
  • The string of an archer's bow. 

  • The string of an archer's bow, as used by the Turks for strangling offenders. 

verb
  • To strangle with a bowstring. 

skein

noun
  • A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle. 

  • A group of wild fowl (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight. 

  • A winning streak. 

  • The membrane of a fish ovary. 

  • A web, a weave, a tangle. 

  • A quantity of yarn, thread, etc. put up together, after it is taken from the reel. A skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread around a fifty-four inch reel. 

verb
  • To wind or weave into a skein. 

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