fumble vs mess up

fumble

verb
  • To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly. 

  • To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident. 

  • To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over. 

  • To blunder uncertainly. 

  • To handle nervously or awkwardly. 

  • To grope awkwardly in trying to find something 

noun
  • A ball etc. that has been dropped by accident. 

  • A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble. 

mess up

verb
  • To discombobulate, utterly confuse, or confound psychologically; to throw into a state of mental disarray. 

  • To damage; injure. 

  • To manhandle; beat up; rough up. 

  • To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. 

  • To botch, bungle; to perform poorly on. 

  • To cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin. 

  • To cause (another person) to make unwanted mistakes in a given task, usually through distraction or obnoxious behavior. 

  • To make a mistake; to do something incorrectly; to perform poorly. 

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