spy vs tattletale

spy

noun
  • A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage). 

  • A defensive player assigned to cover an offensive backfield player man-to-man when they are expected to engage in a running play, but the offensive player does not run with the ball immediately. 

verb
  • To act as a spy. 

  • To search narrowly; to scrutinize. 

  • To explore; to see; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country. 

  • To spot; to catch sight of. 

tattletale

noun
  • One who gossips, often for the sake of attention. 

  • One who tattles (reports others' wrongdoings), often a child seeking attention. 

adj
  • telltale; giveaway 

verb
  • To act as a tattletale; to tell on; to give away, reveal, or expose. 

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