den vs kennel

den

verb
  • To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den. 

noun
  • Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”) 

  • A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining. 

  • A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together. 

  • A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment. 

  • A squalid or wretched place; a haunt. 

kennel

verb
  • To lie or lodge; to dwell, as a dog or a fox. 

  • To house or board a dog (or less commonly another animal). 

  • To drive (a fox) to covert in its hole. 

noun
  • The dogs kept at such a facility; a pack of hounds. 

  • The hole of a fox or other animal. 

  • A house or shelter for a dog. 

  • A facility at which dogs are reared or boarded. 

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