snowball

雪玉

雪を押し固めて丸くしたもの。遊びで投げることが多い。

やさしい英語で： A round lump of snow pressed together, often for throwing in play.

• She threw a snowball at me.
• The children had a snowball fight in the garden.
• My snowball melted before I could throw it.

よく使う表現： throw a snowball, snowball fight, make a snowball

スノーボールケーキ

普通はクリーム入りで、チョコレートと乾燥ココナツで覆った小さなケーキ。

やさしい英語で： A small cake, usually filled with cream and covered with chocolate and dried coconut.

• I ate a snowball with my tea.
• The bakery sells snowballs filled with fresh cream.
• Would you like a chocolate snowball for dessert?

よく使う表現： chocolate snowball, coconut snowball, cream-filled snowball

雪だるま式に増える、急速に拡大する

短時間でどんどん大きくなり、手に負えなくなることも多い。

やさしい英語で： To grow bigger very quickly, often becoming difficult to control.

• Our debts began to snowball.
• The problem snowballed into a crisis within days.
• Costs are snowballing as the project falls further behind.

使い方： snowball into something (A small argument snowballed into a major dispute.)

類義語： escalate, grow, multiply

反対語： shrink, diminish

よく使う表現： snowball into something, snowball out of control, costs snowball