diff --git a/doc/latex.rst b/doc/latex.rst
index 8861d7ad03b..ea77a943524 100644
--- a/doc/latex.rst
+++ b/doc/latex.rst
@@ -1462,7 +1462,6 @@ optional argument, which is a comma-separated list of key=value pairs, as for
 - ``border-width``,
 - ``border-top-width``, ``border-right-width``, ``border-bottom-width``,
   ``border-left-width``,
-- ``box-decoration-break``,
 - ``padding``,
 - ``padding-top``, ``padding-right``, ``padding-bottom``, ``padding-left``,
 - ``border-radius``,
diff --git a/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty b/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty
index 2c23e9f30c7..f1896902eba 100644
--- a/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty
+++ b/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty
@@ -693,7 +693,13 @@ will be set to white}%
           {border-right-width}%
           {border-bottom-width}%
           {border-left-width}%
-          {box-decoration-break}%
+          {box-decoration-break}% This one is actually useless, as \sphinxbox
+          % creates an unbreakable horizontal box, not a breakable vertical
+          % box.  And as is well-known it is very complicated (not to say
+          % impossible) to create in LaTeX breakable horizontal boxes.  No
+          % package offers them.  See the complications for the support of
+          % verbatimforcewraps in sphinxlatexliterals.sty or see the source
+          % code of the soul or soulutf8 packages.
           {padding}%
           {padding-top}%
           {padding-right}%