degrade vs putrefy

degrade

verb
  • To reduce in quality or purity. 

  • To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down. 

  • To lower in value or social position. 

putrefy

verb
  • To reach an advanced stage of decomposition. 

  • To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous. 

  • To corrupt; to make foul. 

  • To become filled with a pus-like or bile-like substance. 

  • To become gangrenous. 

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