shire vs turf

shire

noun
  • A shire horse. 

  • The general area in which a person lives or comes from, used in the context of travel within the United Kingdom. 

  • A rural or outer suburban local government area of Australia. 

  • Physical area administered by a sheriff. 

  • Former administrative area of Britain; a county. 

verb
  • County Longford was shired in 1586 

  • To (re)constitute as one or more shires or counties. 

turf

noun
  • A racetrack, hippodrome; or the sport of racing horses. 

  • A piece of such a layer cut from the soil. May be used as sod to make a lawn, dried for peat, stacked to form earthen structures, etc. 

  • A layer of earth covered with grass; sod. 

  • A block of peat used as fuel. 

  • A territory claimed by a person, gang, etc., as their own. 

verb
  • To expel, eject, or throw out; to turf out. 

  • To throw a frisbee well short of its intended target, usually causing it to hit the ground within 10 yards of its release. 

  • To cancel a project or product. 

  • To transfer or attempt to transfer (a patient or case); to eschew or avoid responsibility for. 

  • To fire from a job or dismiss from a task. 

  • To cover with turf; to create a lawn by laying turfs. 

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