gig vs pluck

gig

verb
  • To play (a musical instrument) at a gig. 

  • To catch or fish with a gig or fizgig. 

  • To work at any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis. 

  • Sometimes followed by it: to ride in a gig (“a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse”). 

  • To spear (fish, etc.) with a gig or fizgig. 

  • To engage in a musical performance, act in a theatre production, etc. 

  • To make a joke, often condescendingly, at the expense of (someone); to make fun of. 

  • To impose a demerit (on someone) for an infraction of a military deportment or dress code. 

noun
  • A two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse. 

  • Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer. 

  • A demerit received for some infraction of a military deportment or dress code. 

  • Synonym of fishgig or fizgig (“a spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals”). 

  • Any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis. 

  • Any unit of measurement having the SI prefix giga-. 

  • A small, narrow, open boat carried in a larger ship, and used for transportation between the ship and the shore, another vessel, etc. 

  • A similar rowing boat or sailboat, especially one used for racing; specifically, a six-oared sea rowing boat commonly found in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 

pluck

verb
  • To play a string instrument pizzicato. 

  • To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation. 

  • To pull something sharply; to pull something out 

  • To pull or twitch sharply. 

  • To remove feathers from a bird. 

  • To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc. 

  • Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing. 

noun
  • Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence. 

  • The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals. 

  • An instance of plucking or pulling sharply. 

  • Cheap wine. 

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