scarify vs sickle

scarify

verb
  • To make scratches or cuts on. 

  • To harrow the feelings. 

  • To remove thatch (build-up of organic matter on the soil) from a lawn, to dethatch. 

  • To break up, loosen, or roughen the surface of a field or road or a hard surface. 

  • To scratch, etch, burn, or cut designs into one's skin as a form of body modification. 

  • To damage the testa (seed coat) of a seed by cutting, scraping, chemicals, hot water, or fire to allow permeation of water and faster germination. 

sickle

verb
  • To cut with a sickle. 

  • Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape. 

  • To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape. 

adj
  • Shaped like the blade of a sickle; crescent-shaped. 

noun
  • Any of the sickle-shaped middle feathers of the domestic cock. 

  • An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops. 

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