eating one’s words vs retraction

eating one’s words

retraction

noun
  • A continuous function from a topological space onto a subspace which is the identity on that subspace. 

  • An act or instance of retracting. 

  • A statement printed or broadcast in a public forum which effects the withdrawal of an earlier assertion, and which concedes that the earlier assertion was in error. 

How often have the words eating one’s words and retraction occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )