forestall vs surmise

forestall

verb
  • To anticipate, to act foreseeingly. 

  • To obstruct or stop up, as a road; to stop the passage of a highway; to intercept on the road, as goods on the way to market. 

  • To preclude or bar from happening, render impossible. 

  • To prevent, delay or hinder something by taking precautionary or anticipatory measures; to avert. 

  • To deprive (with of). 

noun
  • Something situated or placed in front. 

surmise

verb
  • To imagine or suspect; to conjecture; to posit with contestable premises. 

noun
  • Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess. 

  • Reflection; thought; posit. 

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