foothold vs stiffener

foothold

noun
  • A solid grip with the feet. 

  • A secure position from which it is difficult to be dislodged. 

  • Airhead, beachhead, bridgehead, lodgement. 

stiffener

noun
  • Anything added to something in order to stiffen it, such as a support beam, or starch for a collar. 

  • An alcoholic drink taken to fortify oneself. 

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