applaud vs take one's hat off to

applaud

verb
  • To praise, or express approval for something or someone. 

  • To express approval (of something) by clapping the hands. 

take one's hat off to

verb
  • To praise or thank; to congratulate. 

  • To remove one's hat as a sign of respect to. 

How often have the words applaud and take one's hat off to occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )