deadhead vs touchwood

deadhead

noun
  • Driftwood. 

  • An employee of a transport company, especially a pilot, traveling as a passenger for logistical reasons, for example to return home or travel to the next assignment. 

  • A train or truck moved between cities with no passengers or freight, in order to make it available for service. 

  • A stupid or boring person; dullard. 

  • A person staying at a lodging, such as a hotel or boarding house, without paying rent; freeloader. 

  • A person either admitted to a theatrical or musical performance without charge, or paid to attend. 

  • Anyone traveling for free. 

  • A tree or tree branch fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable body of water, partially submerged or rising nearly the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk; snag. 

  • A zombie. 

verb
  • To travel as a deadhead, or non-paying passenger. 

  • To drive an empty vehicle. 

  • To send (a person or message) for free. 

  • To remove spent or dead blossoms from a plant. 

  • To admit to a performance without charge. 

touchwood

noun
  • Decayed wood used as tinder; punk. 

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