diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ef062f1f..dada71f4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Version 165:
 
 * Fix BOOST_NO_CXX11_ALLOCATOR check
+* Tidy up a warning
 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/include/boost/beast/http/impl/verb.ipp b/include/boost/beast/http/impl/verb.ipp
index bfd703d0..8f8b2e33 100644
--- a/include/boost/beast/http/impl/verb.ipp
+++ b/include/boost/beast/http/impl/verb.ipp
@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ verb_to_string(verb v)
     }
 
     BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION(std::invalid_argument{"unknown verb"});
+
+    // Help some compilers which don't know the next line is
+    // unreachable, otherwise spurious warnings are generated.
+    return "<unknown>";
 }
 
 template<class = void>