spy vs stare

spy

verb
  • To search narrowly; to scrutinize. 

  • To act as a spy. 

  • To explore; to see; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country. 

  • To spot; to catch sight of. 

noun
  • A defensive player assigned to cover an offensive backfield player man-to-man when they are expected to engage in a running play, but the offensive player does not run with the ball immediately. 

  • A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage). 

stare

verb
  • To influence in some way by looking fixedly. 

  • To look fixedly (at something). 

  • To be very conspicuous on account of size, prominence, colour, or brilliancy. 

noun
  • A persistent gaze. 

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