fend off vs obviate

fend off

verb
  • To defend against; to repel with force or effort 

  • To prevent (a vessel) from running against anything with too much violence. 

obviate

verb
  • To avoid (a future problem or difficult situation). 

  • To anticipate and prevent or bypass (something which would otherwise have been necessary or required). 

noun
  • Synonym of obviative 

adj
  • Synonym of obviative 

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