swab vs wad

swab

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

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

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

wad

noun
  • A soft plug or seal, particularly as used between the powder and pellets in a shotgun cartridge, or earlier on the charge of a muzzleloader or cannon. 

  • A sandwich. 

  • An ejaculation of semen. 

  • Any black manganese oxide or hydroxide mineral rich rock in the oxidized zone of various ore deposits. 

  • Plumbago, graphite. 

  • An amorphous, compact mass. 

  • A substantial pile (normally of money). 

verb
  • To insert or force a wad into. 

  • To crumple or crush into a compact, amorphous shape or ball. 

  • To wager. 

  • To stuff or line with some soft substance, or wadding, like cotton. 

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