pick up the check vs sponsor

pick up the check

sponsor

verb

  • To be a sponsor for. 

noun

  • A person or organisation with some sort of responsibility for another person or organisation, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or financial aspect. 

  • One that pays all or part of the cost of an event, a publication, or a media program, usually in exchange for advertising time. 

  • A senior member of a twelve step or similar program assigned to a guide a new initiate and form a partnership with him. 

How often have the words pick up the check and sponsor occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )