give the axe vs resign

give the axe

verb
  • To fire (dismiss from employment) 

resign

verb
  • To quit (a job or position). 

  • To submit passively; to give up as hopeless or inevitable. 

  • To give up; to relinquish ownership of. 

  • To hand over (something to someone), place into the care or control of another. 

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