cast about vs sift

cast about

verb
  • To try to find; look around; search. 

  • To plan; plot; contrive. 

sift

verb
  • [+object] (archaic or old-fashioned) To scrutinise (someone or something) carefully so as to find the truth. 

  • To sieve or strain (something). 

  • To separate or scatter (things) as if by sieving. 

  • [+ through (object)] To carefully go through a set of objects, or a collection of information, in order to find something. 

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