rule out vs stymie

rule out

verb
  • To make something impossible. 

  • To reject an option from a list of possibilities. 

  • To disallow. 

  • To cross an item out by drawing a straight line through it, as with a ruler. 

  • To make unavailable. 

stymie

verb
  • To thwart or stump; to cause to fail or to leave hopelessly puzzled, confused, or stuck. 

  • To bring into the position of, or impede by, a stymie. 

noun
  • A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green (abolished 1952). 

  • An obstacle or obstruction. 

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