buzz vs tell

buzz

verb
  • To whisper; to communicate, as tales, in an undertone; to spread, as a report, by whispers or secretly. 

  • To fly while making such a sound. 

  • To show a high level of activity and haste, energization or excitement, to be busy as a bee in one’s actions but perhaps mentally charged. 

  • Of a group of people, to talk about some interesting topic excitedly. 

  • To make a low, continuous, humming or sibilant sound, like that made by bees with their wings. 

  • To fly at high speed and at a very low altitude over a specified area, as to make a surprise pass. 

  • To talk to incessantly or confidentially in a low humming voice. 

  • To utter a murmuring sound; to speak with a low, humming voice. 

  • To cut the hair in a close-cropped military style, or buzzcut. 

  • To communicate with (a person) by means of a buzzer. 

noun
  • Major topic of conversation; widespread rumor; information spread behind the scenes. 

  • Synonym of fizz-buzz (“counting game”) 

  • The audible friction of voiced consonants. 

  • A whisper. 

  • A rush or feeling of energy or excitement; a feeling of slight intoxication. 

  • A continuous humming noise, as of bees; a confused murmur, as of general conversation in low tones. 

  • A telephone call or e-mail. 

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