retain vs sacrifice

retain

verb
  • To hold back (a pupil) instead of allowing them to advance to the next class or year. 

  • To employ by paying a retainer. 

  • To keep in one's pay or service. 

  • To keep in possession or use. 

  • To hold secure. 

sacrifice

verb
  • To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board. 

  • To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out. 

  • To offer (something) as a gift to a deity. 

  • To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility of gaining something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss. 

  • To destroy; to kill. 

  • To trade (a value of higher worth) for something of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more, such as an ally or business relationship, or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money. 

  • To kill a test animal for autopsy. 

noun
  • A loss of profit. 

  • The offering of anything to a god; a consecratory rite. 

  • Something sacrificed. 

  • The destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; the devotion of something desirable to something higher, or to a calling deemed more pressing. 

  • A play in which the batter is intentionally out so that one or more runners can advance around the bases. 

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