mend vs sliver

mend

noun
  • The act of repairing or recovering. 

  • A place, as in clothing, which has been repaired by mending. 

verb
  • To grow better; to advance to a better state; to become improved. 

  • To repair (something that is torn, broken, defaced, decayed, or otherwise damaged) 

  • To put in a better state; to set right; to reform; 

  • To quicken 

  • To help, to advance, to further; to add to. 

sliver

noun
  • A long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment; a splinter. 

  • A narrow high-rise apartment building. 

  • A strand, or slender roll, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which precedes spinning. 

  • Specifically, a splinter caught under the skin. 

  • Bait made of pieces of small fish. Compare kibblings. 

  • A small amount of something; a drop in the bucket; a shred. 

verb
  • To cut or divide into long, thin pieces, or into very small pieces; to cut or rend lengthwise; to slit. 

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