pick off vs self-destruction

pick off

noun
  • An instance of throwing out a batter leading off base. 

verb
  • To dispose of tasks, obstacles, opponents etc. precisely, one by one. 

  • To intercept, such as a ball in flight. 

  • To throw out a runner by tagging them whilst they are not in contact with any of the three bases or home plate. 

  • To remove by picking. 

  • To shoot one by one. 

self-destruction

noun
  • The voluntary destruction of something by itself. 

How often have the words pick off and self-destruction occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )