stinging vs withering

stinging

adj
  • Precise and hurtful. 

  • Having the capacity to sting. 

noun
  • The act by which someone receives a sting. 

withering

adj
  • Tending to make someone feel small; scornful in a mortifying way. 

  • Tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction. 

  • Diminishing rapidly. 

noun
  • The process by which something withers. 

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