rough-and-tumble vs whirl

rough-and-tumble

noun
  • A person who characteristically engages in such activity 

  • An environment of rough activity 

  • Rough activity; fighting or brawling; a fight. 

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

  • highly competitive 

verb
  • Engage in rough-and-tumble activity 

whirl

noun
  • An act of whirling. 

  • (usually following “give”) A brief experiment or trial. 

  • Something that whirls. 

  • A rapid series of events. 

  • Dizziness or giddiness. 

  • A confused tumult. 

verb
  • To make something or someone whirl. 

  • To have a sensation of spinning or reeling. 

  • To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch. 

  • To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly. 

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