diff --git a/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk b/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk
index 9911be6916..fa24fd01d4 100644
--- a/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk
+++ b/package/sqlite/sqlite.mk
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ 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)