decline vs duck

decline

verb
  • To move downwards, to fall, to drop. 

  • 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 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). 

noun
  • A weakening. 

  • Downward movement, fall. 

  • A reduction or diminution of activity. 

  • The act of declining or refusing something. 

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

duck

verb
  • To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw. 

  • To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly. 

  • To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something. 

  • To enter a place for a short moment. 

  • To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid. 

  • To evade doing something. 

  • To quickly lower the head or body, often in order to prevent it from being struck by something. 

  • To bow. 

noun
  • A long-necked medical urinal for men. 

  • A building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related. 

  • One of the weights used to hold a spline in place for the purpose of drawing a curve. 

  • Trousers made of such material. 

  • A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth. 

  • A marble to be shot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games. 

  • The flesh of a duck used as food. 

  • An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet. 

  • A term of endearment; pet; darling. 

  • A cave passage containing water with low, or no, airspace. 

  • A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (short for duck's egg, since the digit "0" is round like an egg.) 

  • Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling. 

  • A cairn used to mark a trail. 

  • A playing card with the rank of two. 

  • Dear, mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger). 

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