diff --git a/src/lib/icu/meson.build b/src/lib/icu/meson.build
index 3ecc0a517..e6cf8cdce 100644
--- a/src/lib/icu/meson.build
+++ b/src/lib/icu/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-icu_dep = dependency('icu-i18n', version: '>= 50', required: get_option('icu'))
-conf.set('HAVE_ICU', icu_dep.found())
+icu_i18n_dep = dependency('icu-i18n', version: '>= 50', required: get_option('icu'))
+icu_uc_dep = dependency('icu-uc', version: '>= 50', required: get_option('icu'))
+have_icu = icu_i18n_dep.found() and icu_uc_dep.found()
+conf.set('HAVE_ICU', have_icu)
 
 icu_sources = [
   'Canonicalize.cxx',
@@ -13,7 +15,7 @@ if is_windows
 endif
 
 iconv_dep = []
-if icu_dep.found()
+if have_icu
   icu_sources += [
     'Init.cxx',
     'Util.cxx',
@@ -31,7 +33,8 @@ icu = static_library(
   icu_sources,
   include_directories: inc,
   dependencies: [
-    icu_dep,
+    icu_i18n_dep,
+    icu_uc_dep,
     iconv_dep,
     fmt_dep,
   ],