damp squib vs fizzle

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. 

fizzle

noun
  • An abortive effort; a flop or dud. 

  • Failure of an exploding nuclear bomb to meet its expected yield during testing. 

  • A state of agitation or worry. 

  • A spluttering or hissing sound. 

verb
  • To fail to generate the expected yield when exploded during testing. 

  • To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped. 

  • To sputter or hiss. 

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