drop a hint vs indicate

drop a hint

verb
  • To reveal a clue or hint about something. 

indicate

verb
  • To point out; to discover; to direct to a knowledge of; to show; to make known. 

  • To show or manifest by symptoms; to point to as the proper remedies. 

  • To signal in a vehicle the desire to turn right or left. 

  • To investigate the condition or power of, as of steam engine, by means of an indicator. 

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