sell vs sell someone down the river

sell

noun
  • An act of selling; sale. 

  • The promotion of an idea for acceptance. 

  • An easy task. 

verb
  • To be sold. 

  • To promote a particular viewpoint. 

  • To work as a prostitute. 

  • To betray for money or other things. 

  • To promote a product or service. 

  • To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act. 

  • To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone. 

  • To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money. 

sell someone down the river

How often have the words sell and sell someone down the river occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )