case vs pincushion

case

noun
  • A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine. 

  • An instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms. 

  • A small fissure which admits water into the workings. 

  • A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture. 

  • A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft. 

  • The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer. 

  • A section of code representing one of the actions of a conditional switch. 

  • Grammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language. 

  • A legal proceeding, lawsuit. 

  • A piece of work, specifically defined within a profession. 

  • An instance or event as a topic of study. 

  • A box, sheath, or covering generally. 

  • A specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) depending on its function in the sentence. 

  • A suitcase. 

  • A shallow tray divided into compartments or "boxes" for holding type, traditionally arranged in sets of two, the "upper case" (containing capitals, small capitals, accented) and "lower case" (small letters, figures, punctuation marks, quadrats, and spaces). 

  • An actual event, situation, or fact. 

  • An enclosing frame or casing. 

  • A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans. 

  • Four of a kind. 

  • A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed. 

  • The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter. 

  • A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces. 

adj
  • The last remaining card of a particular rank. 

verb
  • To survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery. 

  • To place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment. 

  • To cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose. 

pincushion

noun
  • A device, originally like a small, stuffed cushion, designed to have sewing pins and needles stuck into it to store them safely; some modern pincushions hold the objects magnetically. 

  • The pincushionplant, a flowering plant in the genus Navarretia. 

  • A flowering plant in the genus Leucospermum. 

  • The dustymaiden, a flowering plant in the genus Chaenactis. 

  • A person who is pricked or stabbed multiple times with sharp objects; specifically, someone who receives regular hypodermic needle injections. 

  • The coral bead plant, coral moss, or English baby tears (Nertera granadensis), an ornamental plant. 

  • A flowering plant in the genus Scabiosa. 

  • The pincushion cactus, of the genera Escobaria or Mammillaria. 

verb
  • To jab or stick repeatedly with one or more sharp objects, as with pins into a pincushion. 

  • To assume the shape of a pincushion; specifically, of the image on a computer display, television, etc., to exhibit pincushion distortion, where the sides curve inwards. 

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