decrease vs soften

decrease

verb
  • To make (a quantity) smaller. 

  • Of a quantity, to become 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. 

soften

verb
  • To make less harsh 

  • To make something soft or softer. 

  • To palatalize. 

  • To become or make (a consonant) more lenis, to lenite. 

  • To become soft or softer 

  • To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up). 

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