degrade vs improve

degrade

verb
  • To reduce in quality or purity. 

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

  • To lower in value or social position. 

improve

verb
  • To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something). 

  • To become better. 

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