clout vs whiffle

clout

noun
  • A blow with the hand. 

  • A clout nail. 

  • The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head. 

  • Influence or effectiveness, especially political. 

  • A home run. 

verb
  • To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage, patch, or mend with a clout. 

  • To stud with nails, as a timber, or a boot sole. 

  • To guard with an iron plate, as an axletree. 

  • To hit, especially with the fist. 

  • To join or patch clumsily. 

whiffle

noun
  • A short blow or gust. 

verb
  • To blow a short gust. 

  • To waste time. 

  • To waffle, talk aimlessly. 

  • To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about. 

  • To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along. 

  • To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter. 

  • To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle. 

  • To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other. 

  • To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle. 

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