dullen vs tone down

dullen

verb
  • To make dull or duller; to dull. 

  • To become dull or duller; to dull. 

tone down

verb
  • To relax; to make quieter or less obtrusive; to make milder. 

  • To make a television program, piece of writing, etc. less offensive and so more suitable for a family audience. 

  • To moderate or relax; to diminish or weaken the striking characteristics of; to soften. 

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