diff --git a/src/core/main.c b/src/core/main.c
index 62e3eb4668..4b8a315d86 100644
--- a/src/core/main.c
+++ b/src/core/main.c
@@ -1649,7 +1649,7 @@ static int become_shutdown(int objective, int retval) {
         (void) watchdog_setup_pretimeout(0);
         (void) watchdog_setup_pretimeout_governor(NULL);
         r = watchdog_setup(watchdog_timer);
-        watchdog_close(r < 0);
+        watchdog_close(/* disarm= */ r < 0);
 
         /* The environment block: */