drab vs lilac

drab

adj
  • Particularly of colour: dull, uninteresting. 

  • Of the colour of some types of drabcloth: dull brownish yellow or dun. 

noun
  • An instance of a transgender or non-binary person presenting as the gender corresponding to their sex assigned at birth instead of that corresponding to their internal gender identity (for instance, a trans woman dressed as a man). 

  • A dull or uninteresting appearance or situation, unremarkable. 

  • A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey, or dun colour. 

  • Often in the plural form drabs: apparel, especially trousers, made from this fabric. 

  • The colour of this fabric. 

  • A small amount, especially of money. 

  • A box used in a saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans. 

lilac

adj
  • Having a pale purple colour. 

noun
  • A flower of the lilac shrub. 

  • A pale purple color, the color of some lilac flowers. 

  • A large shrub of the genus Syringa, especially Syringa vulgaris, bearing white, pale-pink, or purple flowers. 

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