degrade vs impair

degrade

verb
  • To lower in value or social position. 

  • To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down. 

  • To reduce in quality or purity. 

impair

verb
  • To weaken; to affect negatively; to have a diminishing effect on. 

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