feint vs ploy

feint

noun
  • Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem. 

  • A blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part. 

  • A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy. 

verb
  • To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone). 

  • To direct (a blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack) on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part. 

  • To make a feint or mock attack. 

adj
  • Of lines printed on paper as a handwriting guide: not bold; faint, light; also, of such paper: ruled with faint lines of this sort. 

  • Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike. 

ploy

noun
  • A tactic, strategy, or scheme. 

  • Sport; frolic. 

verb
  • To form a column from a line of troops on some designated subdivision. 

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