diff --git a/bash_completion b/bash_completion
index a8850692..d82b287d 100644
--- a/bash_completion
+++ b/bash_completion
@@ -220,13 +220,12 @@ dequote()
 #
 __reassemble_comp_words_by_ref() {
     local exclude i j ref
-    # On bash-3, `COMP_WORDBREAKS' is empty which is ok; no additional
-    # word breaking is done on bash-3.
-    local wordbreaks="$COMP_WORDBREAKS"
     # Exclude word separator characters?
     if [[ $1 ]]; then
         # Yes, exclude word separator characters;
         # Exclude only those characters, which were really included
+        # NOTE: On bash-3, `COMP_WORDBREAKS' is empty which is ok; no
+        #       additional word breaking is done on bash-3.
         exclude="${1//[^$COMP_WORDBREAKS]}"
     fi