snuffing

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of snuff

noun

1. The act by which a candle, etc. is snuffed out.
2. The act of one who, or that which, snuffs or makes a low sniffing sound.

   “Then there were frantic snuffings under the doors, and a general agitation.”

   “It was early on the fifteenth day that I heard a curious familiar sequence of sounds in the kitchen, and, listening, identified it as the snuffing and scratching of a dog.”