flipper vs spatula

flipper

noun
  • A kitchen spatula. 

  • Television remote control, clicker. 

  • A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce. 

  • A flat lever in a pinball machine, triggered by the player to strike the ball and keep it in play. 

  • A kind of false tooth, usually temporary. 

  • A small flat used to support a larger one. 

  • Someone who flips, in the sense of buying a house or other asset and selling it quickly for profit. 

  • Someone who flips in any other sense, for example throwing a coin. 

  • In marine mammals such as whales, a wide flat limb, adapted for swimming. 

  • A flat, wide, paddle-like rubber covering for the foot, used in swimming. 

verb
  • To lift one or both flippers out of the water and slap the surface of the water. 

spatula

noun
  • A kitchen utensil consisting of a flexible surface attached to a long handle, used for scraping the sides of bowls. 

  • A kitchen utensil consisting of a flat surface attached to a long handle, used for turning, lifting, or stirring food. 

  • A croupier's tool for turning up cards in a casino. 

  • A thin hand tool, often made of nickel, for handling chemicals or other materials, when weighing, etc. 

  • A sclerotized, T-shaped plate in the prothorax of larvae of flies belonging to family Cecidomyiidae, the gall midges. 

verb
  • To strike with a spatula. 

  • To lift with or as if with a spatula. 

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