axe vs sack

axe

noun
  • A dismissal or rejection. 

  • A position, interest, or reason in buying and selling stock, often with ulterior motives. 

  • An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle. 

  • A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it. 

  • A drastic reduction or cutback. 

  • A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz. 

verb
  • To lay off, terminate or drastically reduce, especially in a rough or ruthless manner; to cancel. 

  • To furnish with an axle. 

  • To fell or chop with an axe. 

sack

noun
  • Dismissal from employment, or discharge from a position, usually as give (someone) the sack or get the sack. See verb sense⁵ below. 

  • The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English measure of weight, usually of wool, equal to 13 stone (182 pounds), or in other sources, 26 stone (364 pounds). 

  • A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack; or, a small bag for small items, a satchel. 

  • One of the square bases anchored at first base, second base, or third base. 

  • Loot or booty obtained by pillage. 

  • The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city. 

  • A successful tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. See verb sense⁴ below. 

  • The scrotum. 

  • Bed (either literally or figuratively); usually as hit the sack or in the sack. See also sack out. 

verb
  • To put in a sack or sacks. 

  • To discharge from a job or position; to fire. 

  • To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he is able to throw a pass. 

  • To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders. 

  • To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from. 

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