floodgate vs weir

floodgate

noun
  • An adjustable gate or valve used to control the flow of water through a sluice. 

  • Anything that controls or limits an outpouring of people, emotion etc. 

weir

noun
  • An adjustable dam placed across a river to regulate the flow of water downstream. 

  • A fence placed across a river to catch fish. 

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