set a match to vs smoke

set a match to

smoke

verb
  • To dry or medicate by smoke. 

  • To give off smoke. 

  • To burn; to be kindled; to rage. 

  • To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion. 

  • To cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning. 

  • To suffer severely; to be punished. 

  • To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke. 

  • To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke. 

  • To beat someone at something. 

  • To punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise. 

  • To kill, especially with a gun. 

  • Of a fire in a fireplace: to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught. 

  • To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc. 

  • To perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully. 

noun
  • Bother; problems; hassle. 

  • A light grey colour/color tinted with blue. 

  • A fastball. 

  • A cigarette. 

  • Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.) 

  • A distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire. 

  • A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result. 

  • The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material. 

  • An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act. 

  • A particulate of solid or liquid particles dispersed into the air on the battlefield to degrade enemy ground or for aerial observation. Smoke has many uses--screening smoke, signaling smoke, smoke curtain, smoke haze, and smoke deception. Thus it is an artificial aerosol. 

  • Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors. 

How often have the words set a match to and smoke occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )