ease vs pique

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). 

pique

noun
  • Irritation or resentment awakened by a social injury or slight; offence, especially taken in an emotional sense with little consideration or thought; (countable) especially in fit of pique: a transient feeling of wounded pride. 

  • Enmity, ill feeling; (countable) a feeling of animosity or a dispute. 

  • In piquet, the right of the elder hand to count thirty in hand, or to play before the adversary counts one. 

verb
  • To excite to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest. 

  • To score a pique against (someone). 

  • To excite (someone) to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest). 

  • To pride (oneself) on something. 

  • To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend. 

  • To take pride in. 

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