scathing vs withering

scathing

adj
  • Harshly or bitterly critical; vitriolic. 

  • Harmful or painful; acerbic. 

withering

adj
  • Tending to make someone feel small; scornful in a mortifying way. 

  • Tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction. 

  • Diminishing rapidly. 

noun
  • The process by which something withers. 

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