shimmy vs windmill

shimmy

noun
  • A dance movement involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately. 

  • A dance that was popular in the 1920s. 

  • An abnormal vibration, especially in the wheels of a vehicle. 

  • A sleeveless chemise. 

verb
  • To vibrate abnormally, as a broken wheel. 

  • To shake the body as if dancing the shimmy. 

  • To perform a shimmy (dance movement involving thrusting the shoulders back and forth alternately). 

  • To move across a narrow ledge, either by hanging from it or by strafing on it along the wall. 

  • To climb something (e.g. a pole) gradually (e.g. using alternately one's arms then one's legs). 

windmill

noun
  • A breakdancing move in which the dancer rolls his/her torso continuously in a circular path on the floor, across the upper chest, shoulders and back, while twirling the legs in a V shape in the air. 

  • A pitch where the pitcher swings his arm in a circular motion before throwing the ball. 

  • A child's toy consisting of vanes mounted on a stick that rotate when blown by a person or by the wind. 

  • Any of various muscle exercises in which a large deal of the body makes a great circle, typically one where a kettlebell is raised overhead and the torso is rotated to the other side with the hand reaching its foot (hitting the core, glutes, hamstrings, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids and rotator cuffs) but sometimes even a windshield wiper. 

  • Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Byasa, the wings of which resemble the vanes of a windmill. 

  • An imaginary enemy, but presented as real. 

  • A guitar move where the strumming hand mimics a turning windmill. 

  • A machine which translates linear motion of wind to rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails. 

  • The structure containing such machinery. 

  • The false shower. 

  • A dunk where the dunker swings his arm in a circular motion before throwing the ball through the hoop. 

verb
  • To rotate with a sweeping motion. 

  • Of a rotating part of a machine, to (become disengaged and) rotate freely. 

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