stray vs washboard

stray

noun
  • An instance of atmospheric interference. 

  • An area of common land for use by domestic animals generally. 

  • Any domestic animal that has no enclosure nor proper place and company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray. 

  • One who is lost, literally or figuratively. 

  • An act of wandering off or going astray. 

adj
  • Having gone astray; strayed; wandering 

  • In the wrong place; misplaced. 

verb
  • To wander from company or outside proper limits; to rove or roam at large; to go astray. 

  • To wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err. 

  • To cause to stray; lead astray. 

  • To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way. 

washboard

noun
  • A stretch of ripples or bumps on a dirt or gravel road caused by interaction between traffic and road surface. 

  • A board fastened along a ship's gunwale to prevent splashing; a splashboard. 

  • Such a board used as a simple percussion instrument. 

  • A board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed. 

verb
  • To play a washboard. 

  • To move up and down or back and forth across the surface of a hive, possibly to lay down a layer of propolis and wax. 

  • To produce a rippled texture on a surface. 

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