diff --git a/wcap/meson.build b/wcap/meson.build
index 9a47cdb5..02281c98 100644
--- a/wcap/meson.build
+++ b/wcap/meson.build
@@ -7,15 +7,15 @@ srcs_wcap = [
 	'wcap-decode.c',
 ]
 
-deps_wcap = [
-	dep_libm,
-	dependency('cairo'),
-]
+wcap_dep_cairo = dependency('cairo', required: false)
+if not wcap_dep_cairo.found()
+	error('wcap requires cairo which was not found. Or, you can use \'-Dwcap-decode=false\'.')
+endif
 
 executable(
 	'wcap-decode',
 	srcs_wcap,
 	include_directories: include_directories('..'),
-	dependencies: deps_wcap,
+	dependencies: [ dep_libm, wcap_dep_cairo ],
 	install: true
 )