gripe vs humbug

gripe

noun
  • A complaint, often a petty or trivial one. 

  • A wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems. 

  • The compass or sharpness of a ship's stern under the water, having a tendency to make her keep a good wind. 

  • The piece of timber that terminates the keel at the fore end; the forefoot. 

  • Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines. 

  • An assemblage of ropes, dead-eyes, and hocks, fastened to ringbolts in the deck, to secure the boats when hoisted. 

verb
  • To suffer griping pains. 

  • To tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm. 

  • To annoy or bother. 

  • To complain; to whine. 

humbug

noun
  • Anything complicated, offensive, troublesome, unpleasant or worrying; a misunderstanding, especially if trivial. 

  • Nonsense. 

  • A type of hard sweet (candy), usually peppermint flavoured with a striped pattern. 

  • A hoax, jest, or prank. 

  • A fight. 

  • A fraud or sham; (uncountable) hypocrisy. 

  • A false arrest on trumped-up charges. 

  • The piglet of the wild boar. 

  • A cheat, fraudster, or hypocrite. 

intj
  • Balderdash!, nonsense!, rubbish! 

verb
  • To fight; to act tough. 

  • To play a trick on someone, to cheat, to swindle, to deceive. 

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