detent vs pawl

detent

noun
  • That which locks or unlocks a movement; a catch (stopping mechanism), pawl, or dog; especially, in clockwork, the catch which locks and unlocks the wheelwork in striking. 

verb
  • The action of creating a detent mechanism to lock or unlock movement. 

pawl

noun
  • A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction. 

  • A similar device to prevent motion in other mechanisms besides ratchets. 

verb
  • To stop with a pawl. 

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