pluck vs shear

pluck

noun
  • An instance of plucking or pulling sharply. 

  • Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence. 

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

  • Cheap wine. 

verb
  • 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 play a string instrument pizzicato. 

  • 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. 

shear

noun
  • The act of shearing, or something removed by shearing. 

  • A large machine use for cutting sheet metal. 

  • Wind shear, or an instance thereof. 

  • A transformation that displaces every point in a direction parallel to some given line by a distance proportional to the point’s distance from the line. 

  • The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures. 

  • A cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger. 

  • Forces that push in opposite directions. 

verb
  • To deform because of forces pushing in opposite directions. 

  • To make a vertical cut in coal. 

  • To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears. 

  • To transform by displacing every point in a direction parallel to some given line by a distance proportional to the point’s distance from the line. 

  • To remove the fleece from a sheep etc. by clipping. 

  • To cut the hair of (a person). 

  • To deprive of property; to fleece. 

  • To reap, as grain. 

  • To change in direction or speed. 

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