diff --git a/build_defs/c.build_defs b/build_defs/c.build_defs
index 91e1f31..9583909 100644
--- a/build_defs/c.build_defs
+++ b/build_defs/c.build_defs
@@ -234,7 +234,8 @@ def c_binary(name:str, srcs:list=[], hdrs:list=[], private_hdrs:list=[], compile
                              Alternatively can be a dict of name -> value to define, in which case
                              values are surrounded by quotes.
       test_only (bool): If True, this rule can only be used by tests.
-      static (bool): If True, the binary will be linked statically.
+      static (bool): If True, the binary will be linked statically. Statically-linked binaries are
+                     not supported on macOS, so this is a no-op when generating a Mach-O binary.
       optional_outs (list): Name of optional outputs.
     """
     return cc_binary(
diff --git a/build_defs/cc.build_defs b/build_defs/cc.build_defs
index 2e99014..ec41ea0 100644
--- a/build_defs/cc.build_defs
+++ b/build_defs/cc.build_defs
@@ -548,12 +548,16 @@ def cc_binary(name:str, srcs:list=[], hdrs:list=[], private_hdrs:list=[],
                              Alternatively can be a dict of name -> value to define, in which case
                              values are surrounded by quotes.
       test_only (bool): If True, this rule can only be used by tests.
-      static (bool): If True, the binary will be linked statically.
+      static (bool): If True, the binary will be linked statically. Statically-linked binaries are
+                     not supported on macOS, so this is a no-op when generating a Mach-O binary.
       linkstatic (bool): Only provided for Bazel compatibility. Has no actual effect since we always
                          link roughly equivalently to their "mostly-static" mode.
       labels (list): Labels to attach to this rule.
       optional_outs (list): Name of optional outputs.
     """
+    if CONFIG.TARGET_OS == "darwin" and static:
+        log.warning("%s: statically-linked binaries are unsupported on Darwin; ignoring value of 'static' parameter" % canonicalise(f":{name}"))
+        static = False
     if CONFIG.BAZEL_COMPATIBILITY:
         linker_flags = ['-lpthread' if l == '-pthread' else l for l in linker_flags]
     if CONFIG.CC.DEFAULT_LDFLAGS:
diff --git a/test/BUILD b/test/BUILD
index e663307..8282d4d 100644
--- a/test/BUILD
+++ b/test/BUILD
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ plugin_e2e_test(
         "file $(plz query outputs //:static) > file",
     ],
     expect_output_contains = {
-        "file": "statically linked",
+        # Statically-linked executables can't be generated for Darwin, but //:static should at least
+        # output a functioning dynamically-linked executable.
+        "file": "executable" if CONFIG.TARGET_OS == "darwin" else "statically linked",
     },
 )