helicopter vs whirligig

helicopter

noun
  • A dragonfly. 

  • A powered troweling machine with spinning blades used to spread concrete. 

  • A whirling trick performed with devil sticks. 

  • The winged fruit of certain trees, such as ash, elm, and maple. 

  • An aircraft that is borne along by one or more sets of long rotating blades which allow it to hover, move in any direction including reverse, or land; and typically having a smaller set of blades on its tail that stabilize the aircraft. 

verb
  • To rotate like a helicopter blade. 

  • To overprotect one's children, as a helicopter parent does. 

  • To travel by helicopter. 

  • To transport by helicopter. 

whirligig

noun
  • A whirligig beetle. 

  • A device incorporating spinning, wind-driven propellers or pinwheels, used as whimsical outdoor decoration in a garden or on a porch. 

  • Anything that whirls or spins around, such as a toy top or a merry-go-round. 

  • A device for punishing prisoners, comprising a wooden cage that rapidly spins around to induce nausea. 

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