crock vs winter rat

crock

noun
  • An old or broken-down vehicle (and formerly a horse or ewe). 

  • Silly talk, a foolish belief, a poor excuse, nonsense. 

  • A piece of broken pottery, a shard. 

  • A patient who is difficult to treat, especially one who complains of a minor or imagined illness. 

  • A stoneware or earthenware jar or storage container. 

  • A person who is physically limited by age, illness or injury. 

  • A low stool. 

  • The loose black particles collected from combustion, as on pots and kettles, or in a chimney; soot; smut. 

  • Colouring matter that rubs off from cloth. 

verb
  • To put or store (something) in a crock or pot. 

  • To cover the drain holes of a planter with stones or similar material, in order to ensure proper drainage. 

  • To give off crock or smut. 

  • To transfer coloring through abrasion from one item to another. 

  • To break something or injure someone. 

winter rat

noun
  • An old, unattractive automobile, purchased for little money, to be driven during brutal Great Lakes winters while the owner's "good" car remains garaged and protected from corrosive road salt for the season. 

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