damp squib vs washout

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. 

washout

noun
  • A disappointment or total failure; an unsuccessful person. 

  • An overwhelming victory; a landslide. 

  • An appliance designed to wash something out. 

  • The cleaning of matter from a physiological system using a fluid. 

  • The cleaning of the inside of a (locomotive) boiler to remove scale (limescale). 

  • A breach in a road or railway caused by flooding. 

  • A period between clinical treatments in which any medication delivered as the first treatment is allowed to wash out of the person before the second treatment begins. 

  • The aerodynamic effect of a small twist in the shape of an aircraft wing. 

  • A channel produced by the erosion of a relatively soft surface by a sudden gush of water. 

  • The action whereby falling rainwater clean particles from the air. 

  • A sporting fixture or other event that could not be completed because of rain. 

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