assign vs lay off

assign

verb
  • To appoint or select (someone) for some office. 

  • To give (a value) to a variable. 

  • To allot or give (something) as a task. 

  • To designate or set apart (something) for some purpose. 

  • To attribute or sort (something) into categories. 

  • To categorize (someone) as belonging to the male or female sex. 

  • To transfer (property, a legal right, etc.) from one person to another. 

noun
  • An assignee. 

lay off

verb
  • (of an employer) To dismiss (workers) from employment, e.g. at a time of low business volume or through no fault of the worker, often with a severance package. 

  • In painting, to apply gentle strokes to smooth a wet coat of paint so as to remove visible roller- or brush-marks, commonly using a dry brush; a similar technique, but using a loaded laying-off brush, may produce a smooth coat of paint when using a roller or the usual brush techniques would leave marks. 

  • To place all or part of a bet with another bookmaker in order to reduce risk. 

  • To plan out (a navigational course) using a chart. 

  • To cease, quit, stop (doing something). 

  • To stop bothering, teasing, or pestering someone; to leave (someone) alone. 

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