dead-end vs sever

dead-end

verb
  • To come to a dead-end. 

adj
  • Going nowhere; blocked. 

noun
  • A road with no exit. 

  • A position that offers no hope of progress. 

sever

verb
  • To disconnect; to disunite; to terminate. 

  • To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish. 

  • To cut free. 

  • To suffer disjunction; to be parted or separated. 

How often have the words dead-end and sever occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )