battlement vs bulwark

battlement

noun
  • Any high wall for defense. 

  • In fortification: an indented parapet, formed by a series of rising members called cops or merlons, separated by openings called crenelles or embrasures, the soldier sheltering himself behind the merlon while he fires through the embrasure or through a loophole in the battlement. 

  • The towering roof of heaven. 

bulwark

noun
  • A defensive wall or rampart. 

  • A defense or safeguard. 

  • A breakwater. 

  • Any means of defence or security. 

  • The planking or plating along the sides of a nautical vessel above her gunwale that reduces the likelihood of seas washing over the gunwales and people being washed overboard. 

verb
  • To fortify something with a wall or rampart. 

  • To provide protection of defense for something. 

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