mayhem vs melee

mayhem

noun
  • A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos. 

  • The maiming of a person by depriving him of the use of any of his limbs which are necessary for defense or protection. 

  • Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing. 

  • The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose. 

melee

noun
  • Any confused, disorganised, disordered or chaotic situation. 

  • 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. 

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

  • Lively contention or debate, skirmish. 

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

  • Small cut and polished gemstones sold in lots. 

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

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. 

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