swab vs swash

swab

verb
  • To use a swab on something, or clean something with a swab. 

noun
  • A sailor; a swabby. 

  • A naval officer's epaulet. 

  • A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access. 

  • A mop, especially on a ship. 

  • A piece of material used for cleaning or sampling other items like musical instruments or guns. 

  • A sample taken with a swab (piece of absorbent material). 

swash

verb
  • To swipe. 

  • To streak, to color in a swash. 

  • To wade forcefully through liquid. 

  • To swagger; to act with boldness or bluster (toward). 

  • To fall violently or noisily. 

  • To dash or flow noisily; to splash. 

  • To swirl through liquid; to swish. 

noun
  • A long, protruding ornamental line or pen stroke found in some typefaces and styles of calligraphy. 

  • A smooth stroke; a swish. 

  • A wet splashing sound. 

  • The water that washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken. 

  • A streak or patch. 

  • A narrow sound or channel of water lying within a sand bank, or between a sand bank and the shore, or a bar over which the sea washes. 

  • A swishing noise. 

  • An oval figure, whose mouldings are oblique to the axis of the work. 

adj
  • bold; dramatic. 

  • Having pronounced swashes. 

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