blunder vs damp squib

blunder

noun
  • A clumsy or embarrassing mistake. 

  • A very bad move, usually caused by some tactical oversight. 

verb
  • To make a clumsy or stupid mistake. 

  • To do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse. 

  • To move blindly or clumsily. 

  • To cause to make a mistake. 

damp squib

noun
  • Anything that doesn’t work properly, or fails to come up to expectations; a dud. 

  • A firework that has been wet and therefore fails to go off correctly. 

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