cob vs figure

cob

verb
  • To thresh. 

  • To chip off unwanted pieces of stone, so as to form a desired shape or improve the quality of mineral ore. 

  • To throw, chuck, lob. 

  • To beat with a flat instrument; to paddle. 

  • To remove the kernels from a corncob. 

  • To construct using mud blocks or to seal a wall using mud or an artificial equivalent. 

  • To break up ground with a hoe. 

  • To have the heads mature into corncobs. 

noun
  • A round, often crusty roll or loaf of bread. 

  • A cylinder with pins in it, encoding music to be played back mechanically by a barrel organ. 

  • A small fish, the miller's thumb. 

  • The seed-bearing head of a plant. 

  • A male swan. 

  • Any of the gold and silver coins that were minted in the Spanish Empire and valued in reales or escudos, such as the piece of eight—especially those which were crudely struck and irregularly shaped. 

  • A person of mixed black and white ancestry, especially a griffe; a mulatto. 

  • A corncob. 

  • A lump or piece of anything, usually of a somewhat large size, as of coal, or stone. 

  • A horse having a stout body and short legs. 

  • A large fish, especially the kabeljou (variant spelling of kob). 

  • A punishment consisting of blows inflicted on the buttocks with a strap or a flat piece of wood. 

  • A gull, especially the black-backed gull (Larus marinus); also spelled cobb. 

  • A spider (cf. cobweb). 

  • A building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe; also called cobb, rammed earth or pisé. 

figure

verb
  • To embellish. 

  • To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize. 

  • To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords. 

  • To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem. 

  • To enter into; to be a part of. 

  • To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon. 

  • To embellish with design; to adorn with figures. 

  • To come to understand. 

  • To be reasonable. 

noun
  • A visible pattern as in wood or cloth. 

  • A number, an amount. 

  • A drawing or diagram conveying information. 

  • A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body. 

  • A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment. 

  • The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term. 

  • A figure of speech. 

  • The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person. 

  • A person or thing representing a certain consciousness. 

  • A numeral. 

  • A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses. 

  • Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression. 

  • The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body. 

  • A shape. 

  • Any complex dance moveᵂ. 

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