COLLECTION OF ENGLISH IDIOMS

早稲田大學敎授　深澤裕次郎著
應用英文解釋法
東京英文週報社發行

(p. 51-54)

範例
(a) He can arrive at any moment.
(b) He may arrive at any moment.
(c) He is expected to arrive at any moment.
(d) The door is liable to be opened at any moment.
    Etc. etc.
(a) 彼は何時（なんどき）でも來られる。
(b) 彼は何時來るか分らない。
(c) 彼は今にも來る筈である。
(d) 戸は何時開かれぬとも限らぬ。

解説
At any moment (hour, time, etc.).
　　　　何時　　｜
　　　　今にも　｜　（……するかも知れぬ）。
　常に may, can, be liable, be expected 等、すべて Potentiality （可能性）を表す語と共に用ひらる。

用例
1.  Further arrests may be expected at any moment.
    Mark Twain.
    未だ此上に何時捕縛が有るか分らぬ。
2.  M. Myrie! might be called at any hour to the bedside of the sick and the dying.
    V. Hugo
    ミリエル氏は病人や死にかゝつた人の枕邊に何時よばれぬとも限らぬ。
3.  Or, if engaged in speculation, the rich man's wealth may fly away at any moment.
    S. Smiles
    或は又投機に從事すれば富者の富も何時飛び去るか分らぬ。
4.  There is constant trouble with France, which may at any time see a spark fanned into a blaze.
    Munsey's Magazine
    佛國と紛擾が絶えず、一點の火花が煽り立てられて何時焔々と燃えぬとも限らぬ。
5.  He would answer, -- "Tomorrow, perhaps; she can arrive at any moment, for I am expecting her."
    V. Hugo
    彼は斯う答へた「明日は來るだらう、いや今にも來るかも知れぬ。わしは今待つて居るのだから。」
6.  She was breathing, but so faintly that it seemed as if the respiration would cease at any moment.
    V. Hugo
    彼女は呼吸はして居た、併し實に虫の息で今にも止まつて了ひそうで有つた。
7.  By this time we were suffering greatly from the effects of the heat, and we were afraid that our horses would be overcome and drop down at any moment.
    N. N. R. IV.
    此時我々は熱さの爲に非常に困却し、乗つてる馬も疲れて何時倒れるかも知れぬと心配した。
8.  She who was once been a woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment become a woman again, if there were only the magic touch to effect the transfiguration.
    N. Hawthorne
    一度女であつて、もうそうでなくなつた人は其の變化を起すべき魔術的作用が有りさいすれば何時又もとの女とならぬとも限らない。
9.  He got up to one hundread and twenty, and was feeling as if he would drop off at any moment, when, just as his one hundread and twenty-first sheep was to take that fence, the baby began to cry.
    Max Adeler
    段々算へて行つて百二十匹に達し、直ぐにも寢つきさうになつて來た。所が百二十一匹目が今しも垣根に差し掛らうとすると赤ん坊が泣き出した。
10. Glad to know from your report on practical work that the lump on your head where the door-knob struck it is getting better. In doing key-hole work, the journalist has to be very wary. The door is liable to be opened at any moment.
    H. Carruth
    貴下の頭の、戸の握節（にぎり）の當りし所に生じたる瘤の漸次快癒に向へる趣、實地練習の報告にて拝承、一同喜び居り候、およそ鍵孔仕事をするに際しては新聞記者たるものは用心の上にも用心をせざるべからず、夫れ戸てふものはいつ何時開かるやも知れざれば也。
11. Hardly more than five minutes had passed since he entered the cottage, but it seemed to Dunstan like a long while; and though he was without any distinct recognition of any possibility that Marner might re-enter the cottage at any moment, he felt an indefinable dread laying hold on him, as he rose to his feet with the bags in his hand.
    G. Eliot
　　ダンスタンが、此家に入てから五分以上とはたゝなかつたのだが彼には長い間の樣に見えた、其してマーナーが、生きているかも知れぬ、從て何時此家に入つて來るかも知れぬと云ふ事を、はつきり認めた譯では無いが、金袋を手に持つて立ち上つた時には何とも知れぬ恐怖の念が襲ひ來るのを感じた。
　　though he was without any distinct recognition of nay possiblity（と云ふ事が）有るかも知れぬと云ふ事をはつきり認めないでもないが。laying hold on 捉ふ、襲ふ。rose to his feet 起ち上つた。
12. We are expecting the telegram to begin to arrive at any moment now.
    Mark Twain
    もう何時電報が來はじめるか知れないのだ。