ease vs mess

ease

noun
  • Followed by of or from: release from or reduction of pain, hardship, or annoyance. 

  • Additional space provided to allow greater movement. 

  • Release from constraint, obligation, or a constrained position. 

  • Freedom from pain, hardship, and annoyance, sometimes (derogatory, archaic) idleness, sloth. 

  • Ability, the means to do something 

  • Freedom from difficulty. 

  • Skill, dexterity, facility. 

  • Freedom from worry and concern; peace; sometimes (derogatory, archaic) indifference. 

  • Freedom from effort, leisure, rest. 

  • Freedom from financial effort or worry; affluence. 

  • Freedom from embarrassment or awkwardness; grace. 

verb
  • To move (something) slowly and carefully. 

  • To free (something) from pain, worry, agitation, etc. 

  • To reduce the difficulty of (something). 

  • To proceed with little effort. 

  • To alleviate, assuage or lessen (pain). 

  • To loosen or slacken the tension on a line. 

  • To lessen in intensity. 

  • To give respite to (someone). 

mess

noun
  • Excrement. 

  • A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding. 

  • A building or room in which mess is eaten. 

  • A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table. 

  • The milk given by a cow at one milking. 

  • A large quantity or number. 

  • A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck. 

  • A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool. 

  • A group of iguanas. 

  • A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner). 

verb
  • To eat (with others). 

  • To make soiled by ejaculating. 

  • To screw around with, to bother, to be annoying to. 

  • To supply with a mess. 

  • To belong to a mess. 

  • To make soiled by defecating. 

  • To take meals with a mess. 

  • To throw into disorder or to ruin. 

  • To interfere. 

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