decline vs retire

decline

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

  • 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 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). 

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. 

retire

verb
  • To recede; to fall or bend back. 

  • To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness. 

  • To cease use or production of something. 

  • To go back or return; to withdraw or retreat, especially from public view; to go into privacy. 

  • To fit (a vehicle) with new tires. 

  • To go to bed. 

  • To withdraw; to take away. 

  • To voluntarily stop batting before being dismissed so that the next batsman can bat. 

  • To retreat from action or danger; to withdraw for safety or pleasure. 

  • To withdraw from circulation, or from the market; to take up and pay. 

  • To cause to retire; specifically, to designate as no longer qualified for active service; to place on the retired list. 

  • To make a play which results in a runner or the batter being out, either by means of a put out, fly out or strikeout. 

noun
  • The act of retiring, or the state of being retired. 

  • A place to which one retires. 

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