spat vs tangle

spat

verb
  • To quarrel or argue briefly. 

  • To slap, as with the open hand; to clap together, as the hands. 

  • To spawn. Used of shellfish as above. 

  • To strike with a spattering sound. 

noun
  • A covering or decorative covering worn over a shoe. 

  • A brief argument, falling out, quarrel. 

  • A juvenile shellfish which has attached to a hard surface. 

  • A drag-reducing aerodynamic fairing covering the upper portions of the tyres of an aeroplane equipped with non-retractable landing gear. 

  • A piece of bodywork that covers the upper portions of the rear tyres of a car. 

  • An obsolete unit of distance in astronomy (symbol S), equal to one billion kilometres. 

  • A light blow with something flat. 

  • The spawn of shellfish, especially oysters and similar molluscs. 

tangle

verb
  • To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight. 

  • To mix together or intertwine. 

  • To catch and hold. 

  • To become mixed together or intertwined. 

noun
  • Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria. 

  • An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight. 

  • A complicated or confused state or condition. 

  • A tangled twisted mass. 

  • A paired helical fragment of tau protein found in a nerve cell and associated with Alzheimer's disease. 

  • Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person. 

  • A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times. 

  • An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea. 

  • A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns. 

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