pluck vs stab

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. 

stab

noun
  • An act of stabbing or thrusting with an object. 

  • The horizontal or vertical stabilizer of an aircraft. 

  • A wound made by stabbing. 

  • Pain inflicted on a person's feelings. 

  • Criticism. 

  • An attempt. 

  • A single staccato chord that adds dramatic impact to a composition. 

  • A bacterial culture made by inoculating a solid medium, such as gelatin, with the puncture of a needle or wire. 

verb
  • To injure secretly or by malicious falsehood or slander. 

  • To pierce or to wound (somebody) with a (usually pointed) tool or weapon, especially a knife or dagger. 

  • To thrust in a stabbing motion. 

  • To roughen a brick wall with a pick so as to hold plaster. 

  • To cause a sharp, painful sensation (often used with at). 

  • To pierce folded sheets, near their back edges, for the passage of thread or wire. 

  • To recklessly hit with the tip of a (usually pointed) object, such as a weapon or finger (often used with at). 

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