knead vs shearing

knead

noun
  • The act of kneading something. 

verb
  • To mix thoroughly; form into a homogeneous compound. 

  • To treat or form as if by kneading; to beat. 

  • To work and press into a mass, usually with the hands; especially, to work, as by repeated pressure with the knuckles, into a well mixed mass, the materials of bread, cake, etc. 

  • Of cats, to make an alternating pressing motion with the two front paws. 

shearing

noun
  • The act or operation of reaping. 

  • 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 clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth. 

  • 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 knead and shearing occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )