couple vs shag

couple

verb
  • To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate. 

  • To cause (two animals) to copulate, to bring (two animals) together for mating. 

  • To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another). 

noun
  • A small number. 

  • That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler. 

  • A couple-close. 

  • Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship. 

  • One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple. 

  • Two of the same kind connected or considered together. 

  • A turning effect created by forces that sum to zero in magnitude but produce a non-zero external torque. 

adj
  • Two or (a) small number of. 

det
  • Two or a few, a small number of. 

shag

verb
  • To have sexual intercourse. 

  • To have sexual intercourse with. 

  • To perform the dance called the shag. 

  • To make hairy or shaggy; to roughen. 

  • To shake, wiggle around. 

  • To chase after; especially, to chase after and return (a ball) hit usually out of play. 

  • To masturbate. 

noun
  • A type of rough carpet pile. 

  • A deliberately messy, shaggy hairstyle. 

  • An act of sexual intercourse. 

  • Matted material; rough massed hair, fibres etc. 

  • Coarse shredded tobacco. 

  • Any of several species of sea birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae (cormorant family), especially the common shag or European shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, found on European and African coasts. 

  • A fundraising dance in honour of a couple engaged to be married. 

  • A casual sexual partner. 

  • Friend; mate; buddy. 

  • A swing dance. 

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