degrade vs increase

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. 

increase

verb
  • To become more nearly full; to show more of the surface; to wax. 

  • To multiply by the production of young; to be fertile, fruitful, or prolific. 

  • To make (a quantity, etc.) larger. 

  • (of a quantity, etc.) To become larger or greater. 

noun
  • The creation of one or more new stitches; see Increase (knitting). 

  • For a quantity, the act or process of becoming larger 

  • Offspring, progeny 

  • An amount by which a quantity is increased. 

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