diff --git a/doc/ChangeLog b/doc/ChangeLog
index 3f55b999..92866ad8 100644
--- a/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 
 	* wget.texi (Logging and Input File Options): Alter description of
 	--input-file, implying that --force-html isn't necessary when the
-	input is in HTML file.
+	input is in HTML file. Improve accuracy of --base description.
+	(Wgetrc Commands): Improve accuracy of "base" description.
 
 2009-07-03  Micah Cowan  <micah@cowan.name>
 
diff --git a/doc/wget.texi b/doc/wget.texi
index d0499223..60634f15 100644
--- a/doc/wget.texi
+++ b/doc/wget.texi
@@ -512,8 +512,17 @@ option.
 @cindex base for relative links in input file
 @item -B @var{URL}
 @itemx --base=@var{URL}
-Prepends @var{URL} to relative links read from the file specified with
-the @samp{-i} option.
+Resolves relative links using @var{URL} as the point of reference,
+when reading links from an HTML file specified via the
+@samp{-i}/@samp{--input-file} option (together with
+@samp{--force-html}, or when the input file was fetched remotely from
+a server describing it as @sc{html}). This is equivalent to the
+presence of a @code{BASE} tag in the @sc{html} input file, with
+@var{URL} as the value for the @code{href} attribute.
+
+For instance, if you specify @samp{http://foo/bar/a.html} for
+@var{URL}, and Wget reads @samp{../baz/b.html} from the input file, it
+would be resolved to @samp{http://foo/baz/b.html}.
 @end table
 
 @node Download Options, Directory Options, Logging and Input File Options, Invoking
@@ -2652,9 +2661,10 @@ Enable/disable saving pre-converted files with the suffix
 @c #### Document me!
 @c
 @item base = @var{string}
-Consider relative @sc{url}s in @sc{url} input files forced to be
-interpreted as @sc{html} as being relative to @var{string}---the same as
-@samp{--base=@var{string}}.
+Consider relative @sc{url}s in input files (specified via the
+@samp{input} command or the @samp{--input-file}/@samp{-i} option,
+together with @samp{force_html} or @samp{--force-html})
+as being relative to @var{string}---the same as @samp{--base=@var{string}}.
 
 @item bind_address = @var{address}
 Bind to @var{address}, like the @samp{--bind-address=@var{address}}.
diff --git a/src/ChangeLog b/src/ChangeLog
index 8771c014..c1d57d90 100644
--- a/src/ChangeLog
+++ b/src/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2009-07-06  Micah Cowan  <micah@cowan.name>
+
+	* main.c (print_help): Improve documentation of --base.
+
 2009-07-05  Micah Cowan  <micah@cowan.name>
 
 	* html-url.c (tag_handle_meta): Handle meta name="robots"
diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index f7ea1b34..3f5f469d 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -432,7 +432,8 @@ Logging and input file:\n"),
     N_("\
   -F,  --force-html          treat input file as HTML.\n"),
     N_("\
-  -B,  --base=URL            prepends URL to relative links in -F -i file.\n"),
+  -B,  --base=URL            resolves HTML input-file links (-i -F)\n\
+                             relative to URL,\n"),
     "\n",
 
     N_("\