shorten vs sweeten

shorten

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

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

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

  • To reduce (sail) by taking it in. 

  • To become shorter. 

  • To make shorter; to abbreviate. 

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

sweeten

verb
  • To make sweet to the taste. 

  • To supplement (a composition) with additional instruments, especially strings. 

  • To make pure and salubrious by destroying noxious matter. 

  • To make warm and fertile. 

  • To restore to purity; to free from taint. 

  • To become sweet. 

  • To make less painful or laborious; to relieve. 

  • To soften to the eye; to make delicate. 

  • To make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations. 

  • To make (more) pleasant or to the mind or feelings. 

  • To make mild or kind; to soften. 

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