knockdown vs melee

knockdown

noun
  • An act of knocking down or the condition of being knocked down. 

  • The condition of a sailboat being pushed abruptly to horizontal, with the mast parallel to the water surface. 

  • A shelter erected for use as a temporary dressing room. 

  • A collection of parts required to assemble a product, typically manufactured in one region and exported elsewhere for assembly. 

  • a short pass played downwards, for example from the head onto someone's feet. 

  • A genetically modified organism that carries one or more genes in its chromosomes that have been made less active or had their expression reduced. 

  • The use of a reagent such as an oligonucleotide with sequence complementary to an active gene or its mRNA transcript, to interfere with the expression of said gene. 

  • An overwhelming blow. 

verb
  • To employ the knockdown technique 

adj
  • To be formed into a head by upsetting in fastening. 

  • reduced in price, originally to a price below which an article would not be sold by the auctioneer 

  • powerful enough to overwhelm or knock down 

  • Capable of being taken apart for packing or removal. 

melee

noun
  • A loud, confused or tumultuous fight, argument or scrap. 

  • A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume. 

  • Lively contention or debate, skirmish. 

  • A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling. 

  • Any confused, disorganised, disordered or chaotic situation. 

  • Small cut and polished gemstones sold in lots. 

verb
  • To physically hit in close quarters, as opposed to shooting, blowing up, or other ranged means of damage. Often refers to the usage of a hand-to-hand weapon. 

adj
  • Of a weapon: used in close-range combat. 

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