defile vs scour

defile

verb
  • To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil. 

  • Synonym of defilade (“to fortify (something) as a protection from enfilading fire”) 

  • To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane. 

  • To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish. 

  • To cause (something or someone) to become ritually unclean. 

noun
  • A narrow passage or way (originally (military), one which soldiers could only march through in a single file or line), especially a narrow gorge or pass between mountains. 

  • A single file of soldiers; (by extension) any single file. 

  • An act of marching in files or lines. 

  • An act of defilading a fortress or other place, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior. 

scour

verb
  • To remove debris and dirt (from something) by purging; to sweep along or off by a current of water. 

  • To (cause livestock to) suffer from diarrhoea or dysentery. 

  • To search an area thoroughly. 

  • To run with speed; to scurry. 

  • To clear the digestive tract (of an animal) by administering medication that induces defecation or vomiting; to purge. 

  • To move swiftly over; to brush along. 

  • To clean, polish, or wash (something) by rubbing and scrubbing it vigorously, frequently with an abrasive or cleaning agent. 

noun
  • The removal of sediment caused by swiftly moving water. 

  • A place where wool is washed to remove grease and impurities prior to processing. 

  • A place scoured out by running water, as in the bed of a stream below a waterfall. 

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