mess up vs succeed

mess up

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

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

succeed

verb
  • To prevail in obtaining an intended objective or accomplishment; to prosper as a result or conclusion of a particular effort. 

  • To ascend the throne after the removal or death of the occupant. 

  • To follow something in sequence or time. 

  • To prosper or attain success and beneficial results in general. 

  • To support; to prosper; to promote or give success to. 

  • To descend, as an estate or an heirloom, in the same family; to devolve; (often with to). 

  • To come in the place of another person, thing, or event; to come next in the usual, natural, or prescribed course of things; to follow; hence, to come next in the possession of anything; (often with to). 

  • To come after or follow; to be subsequent or consequent; (often with to). 

  • To replace or supplant someone in order vis-à-vis an office, position, or title. 

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