rake vs tongs

rake

noun
  • A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting debris, grass, etc., for flattening the ground, or for loosening soil; also, a similar wheel-mounted tool drawn by a horse or a tractor. 

  • A series, a succession; specifically (rail transport) a set of coupled rail vehicles, normally coaches or wagons. 

  • The sloped edge of a roof at or adjacent to the first or last rafter. 

  • In full, angle of rake or rake angle: the angle between the edge or face of a tool (especially a cutting tool) and a plane (usually one perpendicular to the object that the tool is being applied to). 

  • A lot, plenty. 

  • A fissure or mineral vein of ore traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so. 

  • A tool with a straight edge at the end used by a croupier to move chips or money across a gaming table. 

  • A divergence from the horizontal or perpendicular; a slant, a slope. 

  • A slant that causes the bow or stern of a watercraft to extend beyond the keel; also, the upper part of the bow or stern that extends beyond the keel. 

  • A similarly shaped tool used for other purposes. 

  • A person (usually a man) who is stylish but habituated to hedonistic and immoral conduct. 

  • A share of profits, takings, etc., especially if obtained illegally; specifically (gambling) the scaled commission fee taken by a cardroom operating a poker game. 

  • The direction of slip during the movement of a fault, measured within the fault plane. 

  • The act of raking. 

  • In cellular automata: a puffer that emits a stream of spaceships rather than a trail of debris. 

  • A course, a path, especially a narrow and steep path or route up a hillside. 

  • Rate of progress; pace, speed. 

  • A slant of some other part of a watercraft (such as a funnel or mast) away from the perpendicular, usually towards the stern. 

verb
  • Followed by up: to bring up or uncover (something), as embarrassing information, past misdeeds, etc. 

  • To move swiftly; to proceed rapidly. 

  • Of a bird of prey: to fly after a quarry; also, to fly away from the falconer, to go wide of the quarry being pursued. 

  • To move (a beam of light, a glance with the eyes, etc.) across (something) with a long side-to-side motion; specifically (often military) to use a weapon to fire at (something) with a side-to-side motion; to spray with gunfire. 

  • To search through (thoroughly). 

  • To cover (something) by or as if by raking things over it. 

  • To act upon with a rake, or as if with a rake. 

  • To incline (something) from a perpendicular direction. 

  • To provide (the bow or stern of a watercraft) with a rake (“a slant that causes it to extend beyond the keel”). 

  • Of a watercraft: to have a rake at its bow or stern. 

  • To fire upon an enemy vessel from a position in line with its bow or stern, causing one's fire to travel through the length of the enemy vessel for maximum damage. 

  • Often followed by in: to gather (things which are apart) together, especially quickly. 

  • To claw at; to scrape, to scratch; followed by away: to erase, to obliterate. 

  • Often followed by an adverb or preposition such as away, off, out, etc.: to drag or pull in a certain direction. 

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 rake and tongs occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )