diff --git a/bash_completion b/bash_completion
index e5220cacf73..de79abb62ab 100644
--- a/bash_completion
+++ b/bash_completion
@@ -547,6 +547,7 @@ _get_comp_words_by_ref()
     local exclude flag i OPTIND=1
     local cur cword words=()
     local upargs=() upvars=() vcur vcword vprev vwords
+    unset -v vcur vcword vprev vwords # workaround for localvar_inherit
 
     while getopts "c:i:n:p:w:" flag "$@"; do
         case $flag in