take the sting out vs wind down

take the sting out

wind down

verb
  • To slow, as if coming to an end; to become calmer or less busy. 

  • To unwind. 

  • To lower by winding, as with a crank or windlass. 

  • To relax; to get rid of stress; to destress. 

  • To shut down slowly (by degrees or in phases). 

How often have the words take the sting out and wind down occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )