blackening vs sullying

blackening

noun
  • The result or an instance of such an act or process; a black stain or mark. 

  • The act or process of turning (becoming) black in colour. 

  • Any of various (dark-colored) surface treatments for metal substrates, to inhibit corrosion; on steel, generally, synonym of bluing. 

  • The act of defaming or sullying. 

sullying

noun
  • The process by which something is sullied or made dirty. 

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