ratoon vs tiller

ratoon

noun
  • A shoot sprouting from the root of a cropped plant, especially sugar cane. 

  • A rattan cane. 

verb
  • To sprout ratoons. 

  • To cut a plant, especially sugar cane, so that it will produce ratoons. 

tiller

noun
  • A shoot of a plant which springs from the root or bottom of the original stalk; a sapling; a sucker. 

  • A person who tills; a farmer. 

  • The stock; a beam on a crossbow carved to fit the arrow, or the point of balance in a longbow. 

  • The handle of the rudder which the helmsman holds to steer the boat, a piece of wood or metal extending forward from the rudder over or through the transom. Generally attached at the top of the rudder. 

  • A machine that mechanically tills the soil. 

  • A steering wheel, usually mounted on the lower portion of the captain's control column, which is used to steer the aircraft's nosewheel or tailwheel to provide steering during taxi. 

  • A bar of iron or wood connected with the rudderhead and leadline, usually forward, in which the rudder is moved as desired by the tiller (FM 55-501). 

  • A handle; a stalk. 

  • The rear-wheel steering control, aboard a tiller truck. 

verb
  • To produce new shoots from the root or from around the bottom of the original stalk; stool. 

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