fill vs shim

fill

noun
  • Inexpensive material used to occupy empty spaces, especially in construction. 

  • An embankment, as in railroad construction, to fill a hollow or ravine; also, the place which is to be filled. 

  • Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity or cut in the layers and exposed by excavation; fill soil. 

  • An amount that fills a container. 

  • A short passage, riff, or rhythmic sound that helps to keep the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody. 

  • The filling of a container or area. 

  • A sufficient or more than sufficient amount. 

  • bass fill 

  • One of the thills or shafts of a carriage. 

verb
  • To treat (a tooth) by adding a dental filling to it. 

  • To satisfy or obey (an order, request, or requirement). 

  • To add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full. 

  • To become full. 

  • To install someone, or be installed, in (a position or office), eliminating a vacancy. 

  • To trim (a yard) so that the wind blows on the after side of the sails. 

  • To fill or supply fully with food; to feed; to satisfy. 

  • To enter (something), making it full. 

  • To occupy fully, to take up all of. 

  • To become pervaded with something. 

  • To have sexual intercourse with (a female). 

shim

noun
  • A thin piece of material, sometimes tapered, used for alignment or support. 

  • A small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, usually for compatibility purposes. 

  • A kind of shallow plow used in tillage to break the ground and clear it of weeds. 

  • A small metal device used to pick open a lock. 

  • A person characterised by both male and female traits, or by ambiguous male-female traits; a hermaphrodite. 

  • A wedge. 

  • A transsexual person, especially a trans woman; (loosely) a drag queen or transvestite. 

verb
  • To fit one or more shims to a piece of machinery. 

  • To adjust the homogeneity of a magnetic field, after the mechanical devices once used for the purpose. 

  • To adjust something by using shims. 

  • To intercept and modify calls to (an API), usually for compatibility purposes. 

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