diff --git a/db/config.cc b/db/config.cc
index 00897e100a..883edf0e04 100644
--- a/db/config.cc
+++ b/db/config.cc
@@ -738,7 +738,6 @@ db::config::config(std::shared_ptr<db::extensions> exts)
     , replace_address_first_boot(this, "replace_address_first_boot", value_status::Used, "", "Like replace_address option, but if the node has been bootstrapped successfully it will be ignored. Same as -Dcassandra.replace_address_first_boot.")
     , override_decommission(this, "override_decommission", value_status::Used, false, "Set true to force a decommissioned node to join the cluster")
     , enable_repair_based_node_ops(this, "enable_repair_based_node_ops", liveness::LiveUpdate, value_status::Used, false, "Set true to use enable repair based node operations instead of streaming based")
-    , wait_for_hint_replay_before_repair(this, "wait_for_hint_replay_before_repair", liveness::LiveUpdate, value_status::Used, true, "If set to true, the cluster will first wait until the cluster sends its hints towards the nodes participating in repair before proceeding with the repair itself. This reduces the amount of data needed to be transferred during repair.")
     , ring_delay_ms(this, "ring_delay_ms", value_status::Used, 30 * 1000, "Time a node waits to hear from other nodes before joining the ring in milliseconds. Same as -Dcassandra.ring_delay_ms in cassandra.")
     , shadow_round_ms(this, "shadow_round_ms", value_status::Used, 300 * 1000, "The maximum gossip shadow round time. Can be used to reduce the gossip feature check time during node boot up.")
     , fd_max_interval_ms(this, "fd_max_interval_ms", value_status::Used, 2 * 1000, "The maximum failure_detector interval time in milliseconds. Interval larger than the maximum will be ignored. Larger cluster may need to increase the default.")
diff --git a/db/config.hh b/db/config.hh
index c87b813f9b..555cab4989 100644
--- a/db/config.hh
+++ b/db/config.hh
@@ -291,7 +291,6 @@ public:
     named_value<sstring> replace_address_first_boot;
     named_value<bool> override_decommission;
     named_value<bool> enable_repair_based_node_ops;
-    named_value<bool> wait_for_hint_replay_before_repair;
     named_value<uint32_t> ring_delay_ms;
     named_value<uint32_t> shadow_round_ms;
     named_value<uint32_t> fd_max_interval_ms;