molasses vs treacle

molasses

noun
  • A thick, sweet syrup drained from sugarcane, especially (Canada, US) the still thicker and sweeter syrup produced by boiling down raw molasses. 

  • Anything considered figuratively sweet, especially sweet words. 

  • Any similarly thick and sweet syrup produced by boiling down fruit juices, tree saps, etc., especially concentrated maple syrup. 

treacle

noun
  • A syrupy byproduct of sugar refining; molasses or golden syrup. 

  • Sweetheart (from treacle tart). 

  • Cloying sentimental speech. 

verb
  • To apply treacle to a surface, so as to catch flies or moths, etc. 

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