cure vs slug

cure

noun
  • A process of solidification or gelling. 

  • Act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health after a disease, or to soundness after injury. 

  • That which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate. 

  • A method, device or medication that restores good health. 

  • Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate. 

  • A solution to a problem. 

  • A process of preservation, as by smoking. 

  • A process whereby a material is caused to form permanent molecular linkages by exposure to chemicals, heat, pressure and/or weathering. 

verb
  • To cause to be rid of (a defect). 

  • To bring about a cure of any kind. 

  • To preserve (food), typically by salting. 

  • To prepare or alter especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use. 

  • To solidify or gel. 

  • To bring (a disease or its bad effects) to an end. 

  • To be undergoing a chemical or physical process for preservation or use. 

  • To restore to health. 

slug

noun
  • A solid block or piece of roughly shaped metal. 

  • A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use. 

  • A bullet or other projectile fired from a firearm; in modern usage, generally refers to a shotgun slug. 

  • The last part of a clean URL, the displayed resource name, similar to a filename. 

  • A hard blow, usually with the fist. 

  • A black screen. 

  • A motile pseudoplasmodium formed by amoebae working together. 

  • A piece of type metal imprinted by a linotype machine; also a black mark placed in the margin to indicate an error; also said in application to typewriters; type slug. 

  • A ship that sails slowly. 

  • The imperial (English) unit of mass that accelerates by 1 foot per second squared (1 ft/s²) when a force of one pound-force (lbf) is exerted on it. 

  • Any of many terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell. 

  • An accessory to a diesel-electric locomotive, used to increase adhesive weight and allow full power to be applied at a lower speed. It has trucks with traction motors, but lacks a prime mover, being powered by electricity from the mother locomotive, and may or may not have a control cab. 

  • A stranger picked up as a passenger to enable legal use of high occupancy vehicle lanes. 

  • A hitchhiking commuter. 

  • A counterfeit coin, especially one used to steal from vending machines. 

  • A discrete mass of a material that moves as a unit, usually through another material. 

  • A shot of a drink, usually alcoholic. 

verb
  • To hit very hard, usually with the fist. 

  • To drink quickly; to gulp; to down. 

  • To take part in casual carpooling; to form ad hoc, informal carpools for commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. 

  • To make sluggish. 

  • To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel. 

  • To load with a slug or slugs. 

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