Is there a term for when a person is getting really irritated/frustrated by someone, but they don't want to yell, so they do that thing where they exhale sharply through their nose?
Say, for example, in customer support the operator has to explain and re-explain a procedure over and over, but the caller can never seem to get it right.
To be clear, I'm talking about the act of blowing air out of the nose when angry/frustrated as opposed to breathing an exasperated sigh out of the mouth. It's just air; there's no vocalization or loud sound like a snort.
Best Answer
"Huff" would be the word that I have seen used for this. It was difficult to come up with a list of citations - The surnames Huff and Huffington cluttered up the results. A. A. Milne apparently believes that snails "huffle" when they are in danger. That's a small joke - see his poem "Four Friends".