delay vs espouse

delay

verb
  • To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time. 

  • To put off until a later time; to defer. 

noun
  • A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity. 

  • An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay. 

  • Synonym of promise (“object representing delayed result”) 

  • An amount of time provided on each move before one's clock starts to tick; a less common time control than increment. 

espouse

verb
  • To accept, support, or take on as one’s own (an idea or a cause). 

  • To become/get married to. 

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