bill vs tongs

bill

noun
  • A cutting instrument, with hook-shaped point, and fitted with a handle, used in pruning, etc.; a billhook. 

  • A writing binding the signer or signers to pay a certain sum at a future day or on demand, with or without interest, as may be stated in the document; a bill of exchange. In the United States, it is usually called a note, a note of hand, or a promissory note. 

  • The beak of a bird, especially when small or flattish; sometimes also used with reference to a platypus, turtle, or other animal. 

  • Of a cap or hat: the brim or peak, serving as a shade to keep sun off the face and out of the eyes. 

  • A written list or inventory. (Now obsolete except in specific senses or set phrases; bill of lading, bill of goods, etc.) 

  • A document, originally sealed; a formal statement or official memorandum. (Now obsolete except with certain qualifying words; bill of health, bill of sale etc.) 

  • The extremity of the arm of an anchor; the point of or beyond the fluke (also called the peak). 

  • The bell, or boom, of the bittern. 

  • A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, with the price or charge; an invoice. 

  • Any of various bladed or pointed hand weapons, originally designating an Anglo-Saxon sword, and later a weapon of infantry, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries, commonly consisting of a broad, heavy, double-edged, hook-shaped blade, with a short pike at the back and another at the top, attached to the end of a long staff. 

  • A piece of paper money; a banknote. 

  • One hundred dollars. 

  • A pickaxe, or mattock. 

  • A beak-like projection, especially a promontory. 

  • A set of items presented together. 

  • Somebody armed with a bill; a billman. 

  • A draft of a law, presented to a legislature for enactment; a proposed or projected law. 

  • A paper, written or printed, and posted up or given away, to advertise something, as a lecture, a play, or the sale of goods 

verb
  • To dig, chop, etc., with a bill. 

  • To advertise by a bill or public notice. 

  • To charge; to send a bill to. 

  • to stroke bill against bill, with reference to doves; to caress in fondness 

tongs

noun
  • An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips. 

  • A large scissors-like two-piece center-hinged forged-iron implement with oval-loop handles and with pointed tips turned inward (in the same plane as and perpendicular to the handles) to facilitate lifting and carrying a block of ice. Often called ice tongs. 

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