minnow vs sardine

minnow

verb
  • To fish for minnows. 

  • To fish (especially for trout) using a minnow as bait. 

noun
  • A small freshwater fish of the carp family, Phoxinus phoxinus and related species. 

  • A relatively small and insignificant person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value. Synonyms: small fry, small potatoes, nobody, no one 

  • Any small fish. 

sardine

verb
  • to fish for sardines 

  • to pack or cram together tightly. 

noun
  • Someone packed or crammed into a small space. 

  • Any one of several species of small herring which are commonly preserved in olive oil or in tins for food, especially the pilchard, or European sardine Sardina pilchardus (syn. Clupea pilchardus). The California sardine Sardinops sagax (syn. Clupea sagax) is similar. The American sardines of the Atlantic coast are mostly the young of the Atlantic herring and of the menhaden. 

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