intractable vs putty in hands

intractable

adj
  • Difficult to treat (of a medical condition). 

  • Difficult to deal with, solve, or manage. 

  • (of a mathematical problem) Not able to be solved. 

  • Not tractable; not able to be managed, controlled, governed or directed. 

  • Stubborn; obstinate. 

putty in hands

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