satire vs squib

satire

noun
  • A literary device of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change or highlighting a shortcoming in the work of another. Humor, irony, and exaggeration are often used to aid this. 

  • A satirical work. 

squib

noun
  • An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person. 

  • A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed. 

  • A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck. 

  • In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface. 

  • A short article, often published in journals, that introduces theoretically problematic empirical data or discusses an overlooked theoretical problem. In contrast to a typical article, a squib need not answer the questions that it poses. 

  • Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit. 

  • A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc. 

  • The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag. 

  • A kind of slow match or safety fuse. 

  • A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode. 

  • In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases. 

verb
  • To make a sound like a small explosion. 

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