diff --git a/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk b/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk
index cb4bd58c47..34a0b9538e 100644
--- a/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk
+++ b/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS),y)
 SQLITE_CONF_OPTS += --enable-threadsafe
 else
 SQLITE_CONF_OPTS += --disable-threadsafe
+SQLITE_CFLAGS += -DSQLITE_THREADSAFE=0
 endif
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_NCURSES)$(BR2_PACKAGE_READLINE),yy)