decrease vs peter out

decrease

verb
  • Of a quantity, to become smaller. 

  • To make (a quantity) smaller. 

noun
  • A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See Decrease (knitting). 

  • An amount by which a quantity is decreased. 

peter out

verb
  • Synonym of peter (“originally (mining), of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore; now (generally), to diminish to nothing; to dwindle, to trail off”) 

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