quail vs reel

quail

verb
  • To waste away; to fade, to wither. 

  • Of courage, faith, etc.: to slacken, to give way. 

  • To lose heart or courage; to be daunted or fearful. 

noun
  • The meat from this bird eaten as food. 

  • Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae. 

reel

verb
  • To back off, step away, or sway backwards unsteadily and suddenly. 

  • To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself. 

  • To wind on a reel. 

  • To produce a mechanical insect-like song, as in grass warblers. 

  • To unwind, to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else. 

  • To make or cause to reel. 

  • To spin or revolve repeatedly. 

  • To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy. 

  • To be in shock. 

noun
  • A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives. 

  • A lively dance originating in Scotland; also, the music of this dance; often called a Scottish (or Scotch) reel. 

  • A kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound. 

  • A short compilation of sample film work used as a demonstrative resume in the entertainment industry. 

  • A shaky or unsteady gait. 

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