annul vs knock on the head

annul

verb
  • To formally revoke the validity of. 

  • To dissolve (a marital union) on the grounds that it is not valid. 

knock on the head

verb
  • To put an end to; to defeat or frustrate (a scheme or project). 

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