leaf vs pincushion

leaf

noun
  • Anything resembling the leaf of a plant. 

  • A flat section used to extend the size of a table. 

  • One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small. 

  • The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat. 

  • A Canadian person. 

  • The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants. 

  • A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement. 

  • A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin. 

  • A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into. 

  • A sheet of a book, magazine, etc (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf). 

  • Tea leaves. 

  • In a tree, a node that has no descendants. 

  • Cannabis. 

verb
  • To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves. 

  • To produce leaves; put forth foliage. 

pincushion

noun
  • A flowering plant in the genus Leucospermum. 

  • The pincushionplant, a flowering plant in the genus Navarretia. 

  • A device, originally like a small, stuffed cushion, designed to have sewing pins and needles stuck into it to store them safely; some modern pincushions hold the objects magnetically. 

  • The dustymaiden, a flowering plant in the genus Chaenactis. 

  • A person who is pricked or stabbed multiple times with sharp objects; specifically, someone who receives regular hypodermic needle injections. 

  • The coral bead plant, coral moss, or English baby tears (Nertera granadensis), an ornamental plant. 

  • A flowering plant in the genus Scabiosa. 

  • The pincushion cactus, of the genera Escobaria or Mammillaria. 

verb
  • To jab or stick repeatedly with one or more sharp objects, as with pins into a pincushion. 

  • To assume the shape of a pincushion; specifically, of the image on a computer display, television, etc., to exhibit pincushion distortion, where the sides curve inwards. 

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