shave vs shearing

shave

noun
  • An instance of shaving. 

  • A thin slice; a shaving. 

  • A hand tool consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end; a spokeshave. 

  • A narrow miss or escape; a close shave. 

verb
  • To make (the head, skin etc.) bald or (the hair) shorter by using a tool such as a razor or electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin. 

  • To cut anything in this fashion. 

  • To remove hair from one's face by this means. 

  • To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing. 

  • To cut finely, as with slices of meat. 

  • To reduce in size or weight. 

shearing

noun
  • The act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth. 

  • Deformation by forces acting in opposite directions. 

  • The process of making a vertical side cutting in working into a face of coal. 

  • The act or operation of reaping. 

  • The material cut off in this way. 

  • The process of preparing shear steel; tilting. 

  • The act or operation of dividing with shears. 

adj
  • Tending to cut or tear. 

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