quoin vs shim

quoin

noun
  • A metal wedge which fits into the space between the type and the edge of a chase, and is tightened to fix the metal type in place. 

  • Any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding blocks. 

  • The keystone of an arch. 

  • A number of apple varieties with a distinctive ribbed appearance, like corners of a coin. 

  • A wedge of wood or iron put under the breech of heavy guns or the muzzle of siege-mortars to raise them to the proper level. 

verb
  • To wedge or steady with quoins. 

shim

noun
  • A wedge. 

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

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

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