mat vs pillion

mat

noun
  • A small flat piece of material used to protect a surface from anything hot or rough; a coaster. 

  • A floor pad to protect athletes. 

  • A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering. 

  • A material or component needed for a crafting recipe. 

  • A thickly tangled mess. 

  • An alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc.; white metal. 

  • A thin layer of woven, non-woven, or knitted fiber that serves as reinforcement to a material. 

  • A thin surface layer; superficial cover. 

verb
  • To cover, protect or decorate with mats. 

  • To form a thick, tangled mess; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle. 

pillion

noun
  • The cushion of a saddle. 

  • The person riding in the pillion. 

  • A similar second saddle on a motorcycle for a passenger. 

  • A pad behind the saddle of a horse for a second rider. 

adv
  • Riding behind the driving rider, as when positioned on the rump of a mount. 

verb
  • To ride on a pillion. 

  • To put a pillion on a horse. 

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