scupper vs thwart

scupper

noun
  • A drainage hole on the deck of a ship. 

  • A similar opening in a wall or parapet that allows water to drain from a roof. 

verb
  • Thwart or destroy, especially something belonging or pertaining to another. 

thwart

noun
  • A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (“breadth”) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail. 

  • A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit. 

  • An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle. 

verb
  • To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent. 

adj
  • Placed or situated across something else; cross, oblique, transverse. 

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