anchor vs washboard

anchor

noun
  • A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement. 

  • Any instrument serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, such as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a device to hold the end of a bridge cable etc.; or a device used in metalworking to hold the core of a mould in place. 

  • A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together. 

  • A marked point in a document that can be the target of a hyperlink. 

  • The combined anchoring gear (anchor, rode, bill/peak and fittings such as bitts, cat, and windlass.) 

  • That which gives stability or security. 

  • A screw anchor. 

  • Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; part of the ornaments of certain mouldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament. 

  • One of the calcareous spinules of certain holothurians, as in species of Synapta. 

  • The thirty-fifth Lenormand card. 

  • A superstore or other facility that serves as a focus to bring customers into an area. 

  • One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges. 

  • The brake of a vehicle. 

  • A defensive player, especially one who counters the opposition's best offensive player. 

  • A point that is touched by the draw hand or string when the bow is fully drawn and ready to shoot. 

  • A device for attaching a climber at the top of a climb, such as a chain or ring or a natural feature. 

  • An iron device so shaped as to grip the bottom and hold a vessel at her berth by the chain or rope attached. (FM 55-501). 

  • The final runner in a relay race. 

  • An anchorman or anchorwoman. 

  • Representation of the nautical tool, used as a heraldic charge. 

verb
  • To be stuck; to be unable to move away from a position. 

  • To stop; to fix or rest. 

  • To connect an object, especially a ship or a boat, to a fixed point. 

  • To perform as an anchorman or anchorwoman. 

  • To cast anchor; to come to anchor. 

  • To provide emotional stability for a person in distress. 

washboard

noun
  • A board fastened along a ship's gunwale to prevent splashing; a splashboard. 

  • A stretch of ripples or bumps on a dirt or gravel road caused by interaction between traffic and road surface. 

  • Such a board used as a simple percussion instrument. 

  • A board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed. 

verb
  • To play a washboard. 

  • To move up and down or back and forth across the surface of a hive, possibly to lay down a layer of propolis and wax. 

  • To produce a rippled texture on a surface. 

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