Inhaling through the nose in short breaths, usually to smell something or show emotion like disdain.
From Old Norse 'snifla' meaning 'to snivel' or 'sniffle,' which is imitative in nature—it mimics the actual sound of sniffing. The '-ing' suffix makes it a present participle or gerund form.
Dogs can detect diseases like cancer through sniffing because their sense of smell is about 10,000 times better than ours—so when we call someone a 'bloodhound' for sniffing out secrets, we're actually tapping into real neuroscience!
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