death knell vs peal

death knell

noun
  • The tolling of a bell announcing death. 

  • A sign or omen foretelling the death or destruction of something. 

peal

noun
  • A set of bells tuned to each other according to the diatonic scale. 

  • The changes rung on a set of bells; in the strict sense a full peal of at least 5040 changes. 

  • A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, laughter, of a multitude, etc. 

  • A small salmon; a grilse; a sewin. 

verb
  • To resound; to echo. 

  • To assail with noise. 

  • To sound with a peal or peals. 

  • To utter or sound loudly. 

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