diff --git a/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk b/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk
index 1c20b67e4b..da1a11b266 100644
--- a/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk
+++ b/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@ QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += \
 	-no-pch \
 	-shared
 
+# starting from version 5.9.0, -optimize-debug is enabled by default
+# for debug builds and it overrides -O* with -Og which is not what we
+# want.
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_QT5_VERSION_LATEST),y)
+QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += -no-optimize-debug
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_QT5_VERSION_5_6),y)
 QT5BASE_DEPENDENCIES += pcre
 else