withe vs withy

withe

noun
  • A flexible, slender twig or shoot, especially when used as a band or for binding; a withy. 

  • An iron attachment on one end of a mast or boom, with a ring, through which another mast or boom is rigged out and secured. 

  • An elastic handle to a tool to save the hand from the shock of blows. 

  • A band of twisted twigs. 

  • A partition between flues in a chimney. 

verb
  • To bind with withes. 

  • To beat with withes. 

withy

noun
  • A long flexible twig of the osier; a withe. 

  • The osier (Salix viminalis), a type of willow. 

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