stiffener vs stiffening

stiffener

noun
  • Anything added to something in order to stiffen it, such as a support beam, or starch for a collar. 

  • An alcoholic drink taken to fortify oneself. 

stiffening

noun
  • An item, material or feature that makes something stiffer. 

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