rough-and-tumble vs scuff

rough-and-tumble

verb
  • Engage in rough-and-tumble activity 

adj
  • active, vigorous and rough, with the possibility of harm 

  • highly competitive 

noun
  • An environment of rough activity 

  • Rough activity; fighting or brawling; a fight. 

  • A person who characteristically engages in such activity 

scuff

verb
  • To hit lightly, to brush against. 

  • To mishit (a shot on a ball) due to poor contact with the ball. 

  • To scrape and roughen the surface of (shoes, etc.) 

  • To scrape the feet while walking. 

noun
  • A mark left by scuffing or scraping. 

  • A scurf; a scale. 

  • The back part of the neck; the scruff. 

How often have the words rough-and-tumble and scuff occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )