heliotrope vs whitewash

heliotrope

noun
  • A light purple or violet colour. 

  • Particularly, a purple-flowered plant of the species Heliotropium arborescens. 

  • A bloodstone (a variety of quartz). 

  • An instrument, employed in triangulation, that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight toward another, very distant, surveyor. 

  • The fragrance of heliotrope flowers. 

  • A plant that turns so that it faces the sun. 

adj
  • Light purple or violet. 

  • Keeping one’s face turned toward the sun. 

whitewash

noun
  • A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white. 

  • The most basic type of thickening agent, flour blended with water to make a paste. 

  • A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep. 

  • A campaign to paper over unfavorable elements. 

verb
  • To cover over errors or bad actions. 

  • In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk. 

  • To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence. 

  • To make over (a person or character, a group, an event, etc) so that it is or seems more white, for example by applying makeup to a person, or by discounting the participation of people of color in an event and focusing on only white participation. 

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