falter vs pull back

falter

verb
  • To stumble. 

  • To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought. 

  • To hesitate in purpose or action. 

  • To cleanse or sift, as barley. 

  • To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off. 

  • To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner. 

  • To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause). 

noun
  • An unsteadiness. 

pull back

verb
  • To retreat. 

  • To pass (the ball) into a position further from the attacking goal line. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pull, back. 

  • To score when the team is losing. 

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