decline vs downshift

decline

noun
  • Downward movement, fall. 

  • A weakening. 

  • A reduction or diminution of activity. 

  • The act of declining or refusing something. 

  • A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road. 

verb
  • To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain. 

  • To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun. 

  • To cause to decrease or diminish. 

  • To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall. 

  • To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw. 

  • To move downwards, to fall, to drop. 

  • To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like. 

  • To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play. 

  • To become weaker or worse. 

  • To recite all the different declined forms of (a word). 

downshift

noun
  • A change of direction or a movement downwards. 

  • A change in career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding. 

  • A shift of a transmission into a lower gear. 

  • A reduction in quality or quantity. 

verb
  • To reduce (something) in quality or quantity (as effect, scope, speed, etc.) 

  • To shift a transmission into a lower gear. 

  • To shift (a car or bicycle) into a lower gear. 

  • To function at a lower rate; to slacken. 

  • To change (one's career or lifestyle) to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding. 

  • To change one's career or lifestyle to one which is not as well paid but less stressful and more personally rewarding. 

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