poleax vs poleaxe

poleax

poleaxe

noun
  • An ax having both a blade and a hammer face; used to slaughter cattle. 

  • A long-handled battle axe, being a combination of ax, hammer and pike. 

verb
  • To fell someone with, or as if with, a poleaxe. 

  • To astonish; to shock or surprise utterly. 

  • To stymie, thwart, cripple, paralyze. 

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