gridiron vs rugby

gridiron

noun
  • The field on which American football is played. 

  • An openwork frame on which vessels are placed for examination, cleaning, and repairs. 

  • American and Canadian football, particularly when used to distinguish from other codes of football. 

  • A raised framework from which lighting is suspended. 

  • An iron rack or grate used for broiling meat and fish over coals. 

  • An instrument of torture on which people were secured before being burned by fire. 

  • Any object resembling the rack or grate. 

verb
  • To mark or cover with lines; to crisscross. 

  • To purchase land so that the remaining adjacent sections are smaller than the minimum area purchasable as freehold, thus excluding potential freeholders. 

rugby

noun
  • A form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball; rugby football. The ball cannot be handled forwards and points are scored by touching the ball to the ground in the area past the opponent's territory or by kicking the ball between goalposts and over a crossbar. 

  • The form of the game known as rugby union (see the usage note). 

  • Rubber cement, contact cement. 

verb
  • To play rugby. 

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