diminish vs whittle

diminish

verb
  • To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken; to nerf (in gaming). 

  • To taper. 

  • To disappear gradually. 

  • To take away; to subtract. 

  • To make smaller. 

  • To become less or smaller. 

whittle

verb
  • To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt). 

  • To cut or shape wood with a knife. 

  • To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate. 

noun
  • A knife; especially, a pocket knife, sheath knife, or clasp knife. 

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