diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index a86d7230292..b83b890934c 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -309,6 +309,10 @@
     };
 
     process.nextTick = function(callback) {
+      // on the way out, don't bother.
+      // it won't get fired anyway.
+      if (process._exiting) return;
+
       var tock = { callback: callback };
       if (process.domain) tock.domain = process.domain;
       nextTickQueue.push(tock);
diff --git a/test/simple/test-next-tick.js b/test/simple/test-next-tick.js
index 894729cc6fe..2e40658c923 100644
--- a/test/simple/test-next-tick.js
+++ b/test/simple/test-next-tick.js
@@ -44,7 +44,9 @@ process.nextTick(function() {
   complete++;
 });
 
-
 process.on('exit', function() {
   assert.equal(5, complete);
+  process.nextTick(function() {
+    throw new Error('this should not occur');
+  });
 });