cold feet vs despair

cold feet

noun
  • A feeling of nervousness or anxiousness causing one to reconsider a decision about an upcoming event. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cold, feet. 

despair

noun
  • That which causes despair. 

  • Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. 

  • That which is despaired of. 

verb
  • To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation. 

  • To cause to despair. 

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