nicking vs pricking

nicking

noun
  • A small cut or nick. 

  • The cutting made by the hewer at the side of the face. 

pricking

noun
  • The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point. 

  • The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to produce lameness. 

  • A sensation that pricks. 

  • A nicking. 

  • The mark or trace left by a hare's foot; a prick. 

  • The act of tracing a hare by its footmarks. 

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