portion vs sliver

portion

noun
  • That which is divided off or separated, as a part from a whole; a separated part of anything. 

  • An allocated amount. 

  • One's fate; lot. 

  • A wife's fortune; a dowry. 

  • The part of an estate given or falling to a child or heir; an inheritance. 

verb
  • To divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes. 

  • To endow with a portion or inheritance. 

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 portion and sliver occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )