sapping vs shearing

sapping

noun
  • The act by which something is sapped or depleted. 

  • The act of excavating trenches. 

  • The act of being struck with a sap or club. 

shearing

noun
  • The act or operation of dividing with shears. 

  • 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 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. 

adj
  • Tending to cut or tear. 

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