keyhole vs nick

keyhole

noun
  • The free-throw lane together with the circle surrounding the free-throw line; key. 

  • A mortise for a key or cotter. 

  • A gravitational keyhole. 

  • Any small opening resembling the hole for a key in shape or function. 

  • A hole or excavation in beams intended to be joined together, to receive the key that fastens them. 

  • A transient column of vapor or plasma formed when using high energy beams, such as lasers, for welding or cutting. 

  • The hole in a lock where the key is inserted and turns. 

  • A circle cut out of a garment as a decorative effect, typically at the front or back neckline of a dress. 

  • A welding method in which a hole forms in the surface immediately ahead of the puddle in the direction of welding. The hole is filled as the weld progresses. 

verb
  • To strike a target after wobbling in flight so that the long axis of the bullet does not follow the line of flight, typically due to insufficient spin resulting from the rifling in the barrel. 

nick

noun
  • The point where the wall of the court meets the floor. 

  • One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation. 

  • Often in the expressions in bad nick and in good nick: condition, state. 

  • A police station or prison. 

  • A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch. 

verb
  • To make a cut at the side of the face. 

  • To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way. 

  • To make ragged or uneven, as by cutting nicks or notches in; to deface, to mar. 

  • To steal. 

  • To arrest. 

  • To make a crosscut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher). 

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