den vs rove

den

noun
  • A squalid or wretched place; a haunt. 

  • 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. 

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

rove

noun
  • The act of wandering; a ramble. 

  • A copper washer upon which the end of a nail is clinched in boatbuilding. 

  • A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and lightly twisted, preparatory to further processing; a roving. 

verb
  • To card wool or other fibres. 

  • To roam, or wander about at random, especially over a wide area. 

  • To plough into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together. 

  • simple past tense of rive 

  • simple past tense of reeve 

  • To twist slightly; to bring together, as slivers of wool or cotton, and twist slightly before spinning. 

  • To roam or wander through. 

  • To draw through an eye or aperture. 

  • To practice robbery on the seas; to voyage about on the seas as a pirate. 

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