knock around vs rove

knock around

verb
  • Synonym of knock about 

rove

verb
  • To roam or wander through. 

  • To card wool or other fibres. 

  • To roam, or wander about at random, especially over a wide area. 

  • To plough into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together. 

  • simple past tense of rive 

  • simple past tense of reeve 

  • To twist slightly; to bring together, as slivers of wool or cotton, and twist slightly before spinning. 

  • To draw through an eye or aperture. 

  • To practice robbery on the seas; to voyage about on the seas as a pirate. 

noun
  • A copper washer upon which the end of a nail is clinched in boatbuilding. 

  • A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and lightly twisted, preparatory to further processing; a roving. 

  • The act of wandering; a ramble. 

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