bank vs curb

bank

verb
  • To roll or incline laterally in order to turn. 

  • To put into a bank. 

  • To arrange or order in a row. 

  • To raise a mound or dike about; to enclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank. 

  • To provide additional power for a train ascending a bank (incline) by attaching another locomotive. 

  • To conceal in the rectum for use in prison. 

  • To deal with a bank or financial institution, or for an institution to provide financial services to a client. 

  • To cause (an aircraft) to bank. 

  • To form into a bank or heap, to bank up. 

  • To cover the embers of a fire with ashes in order to retain heat. 

noun
  • An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs. 

  • The ground at the top of a shaft. 

  • A contiguous block of memory that is of fixed, hardware-dependent size, but often larger than a page and partitioning the memory such that two distinct banks do not overlap. 

  • Money; profit. 

  • An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse. 

  • The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn. 

  • The regular term of a court of law, or the full court sitting to hear arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius, or a court held for jury trials. See banc 

  • A row or panel of items stored or grouped together. 

  • A row of keys on a musical keyboard or the equivalent on a typewriter keyboard. 

  • An incline, a hill. 

  • A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment. 

  • The sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses. 

  • A fund from deposits or contributions, to be used in transacting business; a joint stock or capital. 

  • A branch office of such an institution. 

  • A device used to store coins or currency. 

  • An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth (for example, a sandbank or mudbank). 

  • A mass noun for a quantity of clouds. 

  • The face of the coal at which miners are working. 

  • An underwriter or controller of a card game. 

  • A set of multiple adjacent drop targets. 

  • A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars. 

  • A bench or seat for judges in court. 

  • A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level. 

  • In certain games, such as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw. 

  • A safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods. 

  • A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ. 

curb

verb
  • To bend or curve. 

  • To rein in. 

  • To furnish with a curb, as a well; to restrain by a curb, as a bank of earth. 

  • To crouch; to cringe. 

  • To damage vehicle wheels or tires by running into or over a pavement curb. 

  • To check, restrain or control. 

  • To bring to a stop beside a curb. 

noun
  • Something that checks or restrains; a restraint. 

  • A swelling on the back part of the hind leg of a horse, just behind the lowest part of the hock joint, generally causing lameness. 

  • A concrete margin along the edge of a road; a kerb (UK, Australia, New Zealand) 

  • A riding or driving bit for a horse that has rein action which amplifies the pressure in the mouth by leverage advantage placing pressure on the poll via the crown piece of the bridle and chin groove via a curb chain. 

  • A sidewalk, covered or partially enclosed, bordering the airport terminal road system with adjacent paved areas to permit vehicles to off-load or load passengers. 

  • A raised margin along the edge of something, such as a well or the eye of a dome, as a strengthening. 

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