diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 86f6d682e..af3e6e142 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ ver 0.21.6 (not yet released)
 * playlist
   - flac: fix use-after-free bug
 * support abstract sockets on Linux
+* Windows
+  - remove the unused libwinpthread-1.dll dependency
 
 ver 0.21.5 (2019/02/22)
 * protocol
diff --git a/src/thread/meson.build b/src/thread/meson.build
index 241a3ed4e..408836481 100644
--- a/src/thread/meson.build
+++ b/src/thread/meson.build
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
-threads_dep = dependency('threads')
+if is_windows
+  # avoid the unused libwinpthread-1.dll dependency on Windows; MPD
+  # doesn't use the pthread API on Windows, but this is what Meson
+  # unhelpfully detects for us
+  threads_dep = []
+else
+  threads_dep = dependency('threads')
+endif
 
 conf.set('HAVE_PTHREAD_SETNAME_NP', compiler.has_function('pthread_setname_np', dependencies: threads_dep))