backpedal vs recant

backpedal

verb
  • To distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement; back off from an idea. 

  • To pedal backwards on a bicycle. 

  • To step backwards. 

recant

verb
  • To withdraw or repudiate a statement or opinion formerly expressed, especially formally and publicly. 

  • To give a new cant (slant, angle) to something, in particular railway track on a curve. 

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