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Glite Dictionary
to have her tubes tied

to have her tubes tied

1 7.2
A woman who has surgery to permanently stop having children by closing her fallopian tubes
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : hacerse la ligadura de trompas
  • After having two children, she decided to have her tubes tied to prevent future pregnancies.

Examples

  • She got an abortion, she had her tubes tied, and she went home. John asked for her number, and the woman hung up.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • He had urged her to have her tubes tied instead, but she had hedged about it because it seemed so radical, and finally they had settled on alternate methods of assuring that they wouldn't have children.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • She had her tubes tied.

    Presumed Innocent (1990)

  • - Can you think of any reason... ...for a woman who had her tubes tied... ...to use a spermicide?

    Presumed Innocent (1990)

  • Had her tubes tied.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Many women choose to have their tubes tied after they feel their families are complete.

  • After discussing her options with her doctor, she decided to have her tubes tied for permanent birth control.

Synonyms

to sterilize
vsto have her tubes tied
  • Specialized
15 5.8

To make a person or animal unable to have children by a medical operation

is a female surgical method that blocks fallopian tubes to stop pregnancy
to have one's tubes tied
vsto have her tubes tied
  • Informal
1 8.7

Have an operation that closes the tubes to the womb so she cannot get pregnant

is the same meaning but uses a general pronoun instead of a specific female one

Antonyms

to conceive
103 6.0

To become pregnant

Surface Forms

have her tubes tied infinitive
had her tubes tied past
had her tubes tied past participle
having her tubes tied present participle
has her tubes tied third person singular

Morphology

have + her + tubes + tied

The constituents ('have' + 'her' + 'tubes' + 'tied') do suggest a woman undergoing a procedure to have tubes fastened — 'have ... tied' indicates causing/undergoing an action and 'tubes tied' evokes physically binding tubes. However, recognizing that 'tubes' refers to the fallopian/oviducts and that this specifically means permanent female sterilization is medical/socio-cultural knowledge beyond simple compositional inference, so the meaning is partially but not fully predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Have her tubes tied comes from the simple image of doctors tying a woman's fallopian tubes so eggs cannot meet sperm. That's why it means 'to have an operation that stops pregnancy permanently'.