diff --git a/src/nsterm.m b/src/nsterm.m
index f161edc4ac2..faf9324402b 100644
--- a/src/nsterm.m
+++ b/src/nsterm.m
@@ -4757,8 +4757,12 @@ Function modeled after x_draw_glyph_string_box ().
       if (writefds && FD_ISSET(k, writefds)) ++nr;
     }
 
-  if (NSApp == nil
-      || ![NSThread isMainThread]
+  /* emacs -nw doesn't have an NSApp, so we're done.  */
+  if (NSApp == nil)
+    return thread_select (pselect, nfds, readfds, writefds, exceptfds,
+			  timeout, sigmask);
+
+  if (![NSThread isMainThread]
       || (timeout && timeout->tv_sec == 0 && timeout->tv_nsec == 0))
     thread_select (pselect, nfds, readfds, writefds,
 		   exceptfds, timeout, sigmask);