hold up vs shorten

hold up

verb
  • To keep up; not to fall behind; not to lose ground. 

  • To wait or delay. 

  • To support or lift. 

  • To fulfil or complete one's part of an agreement. 

  • To rob at gunpoint. 

  • To impede; detain. 

  • (Of an artistic work) To continue to be seen as good, to avoid seeming dated. 

  • To withstand; to stand up to; to survive. 

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 hold up and shorten occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )