falter vs scutch

falter

verb
  • To cleanse or sift, as barley. 

  • To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought. 

  • To hesitate in purpose or action. 

  • To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off. 

  • To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner. 

  • To stumble. 

  • To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause). 

noun
  • An unsteadiness. 

scutch

verb
  • To separate the woody fibre from (flax, hemp, etc.) by beating; to swingle. 

noun
  • A bricklayer's small picklike tool with two cutting edges (or prongs) for dressing stone or cutting and trimming bricks. 

  • The woody fibre of flax or hemp; the refuse of scutched flax or hemp. 

  • A tuft or clump of grass. 

  • A wooden implement shaped like a large knife used to separate the valuable fibres of flax or hemp by beating them and scraping from it the woody or coarse portions. 

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