machete vs spear

machete

noun
  • A sword-like tool used for cutting large plants with a chopping motion, or as a weapon. The blade is usually 50 to 65 centimeters long, and up to three millimeters thick. 

  • A small stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal, having a double bulged body, traditionally of wood, with a small rib and four metallic strings, sometimes attached by wooden pegs. 

verb
  • To cut or chop with a machete. 

  • To hack or chop crudely with a blade other than a machete. 

spear

noun
  • A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion. 

  • An illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player. 

  • The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod. 

  • A long, thin strip from a vegetable. 

  • The sprout of a plant, stalk 

  • In professional wrestling, a running tackle in which the wrestler's shoulder is driven into the opponent's midsection. 

  • A shoot, as of grass; a spire. 

  • A lance with barbed prongs, used by fishermen to retrieve fish. 

  • A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman. 

  • The feather of a horse. 

verb
  • To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object; to make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device. 

  • To pierce with a spear. 

  • To tackle an opponent by ramming into them with one's helmet. 

  • To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do. 

adj
  • Pertaining to male family members. 

  • Male. 

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