hard-hitting vs subtle

hard-hitting

adj
  • Aggressively vigorous or forceful 

subtle

adj
  • Cunning, skillful. 

  • Tenuous; rarefied; of low density or thin consistency. 

  • Barely noticeable, not obvious, indistinct. 

  • Cleverly contrived. 

  • Insidious. 

  • Hard to grasp; not obvious or easily understood. 

How often have the words hard-hitting and subtle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )