darken vs whitewash

darken

verb
  • To become dark or darker in colour. 

  • To become gloomy, darker in mood. 

  • To render gloomy, darker in mood. 

  • To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible. 

  • To become dark or darker (having less light). 

  • To make dark or darker by reducing light. 

  • To make dark or darker in colour. 

  • To blind, impair the eyesight. 

  • To be blinded, lose one’s eyesight. 

  • To make foul; to sully; to tarnish. 

  • To get dark (referring to the sky, either in the evening or as a result of cloud). 

whitewash

verb
  • To make over (a person or character, a group, an event, etc) so that it is or seems more white, for example by applying makeup to a person, or by discounting the participation of people of color in an event and focusing on only white participation. 

  • To cover over errors or bad actions. 

  • In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk. 

  • To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence. 

noun
  • The most basic type of thickening agent, flour blended with water to make a paste. 

  • A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white. 

  • A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep. 

  • A campaign to paper over unfavorable elements. 

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