detail vs shorten

detail

verb
  • To explain in detail. 

  • To clean carefully (particularly of road vehicles) (always pronounced. /ˈdiːteɪl/) 

  • To assign to a particular task. 

noun
  • An individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which it is a part. 

  • A part considered trivial enough to ignore. 

  • A person's name, address and other personal information. 

  • A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars. 

  • A selected portion of a painting. 

  • A part small enough to escape casual notice. 

  • The small parts that can escape casual notice. 

  • A temporary unit or assignment. 

  • A profusion of details. 

shorten

verb
  • To take in the slack of (a rope). 

  • To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen. 

  • To reduce (sail) by taking it in. 

  • To become shorter. 

  • To make shorter; to abbreviate. 

  • To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, etc. 

  • To make deficient (as to); to deprive (of). 

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