direct vs serpentine

direct

adj
  • Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end. 

  • having a single flight number. 

  • Pertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more representatives or delegates. 

  • Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous. 

  • Proceeding without deviation or interruption. 

  • Straightforward; sincere. 

  • In the line of descent; not collateral. 

  • In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; said of the motion of a celestial body. 

verb
  • To manage, control, steer. 

  • To aim (something) at (something else). 

  • To point out to or show (somebody) the right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way. 

  • To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order. 

adv
  • Directly. 

serpentine

adj
  • Curving in alternate directions; sinuous. 

  • Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of snakes. 

  • Of, or having attributes associated with, the serpent referred to in the book of Genesis in the Bible, such as craftiness or deceitfulness. 

  • Having the form or shape of a snake. 

noun
  • Any of several green/brown minerals consisting of magnesium and iron silicates that have similar layered crystal structure. 

  • An early form of cannon, used in the 16th century. 

  • in dressage, a winding walk across on the arena 

  • An outcrop or region with soil and rock dominated by these minerals. 

  • Any of several plants believed to cure snakebites. 

  • A kind of firework. 

  • A coiled distillation tube. 

  • Any of several related cubic curves; anguinea 

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