diff --git a/lib/libzfs/include/libzfs.h b/lib/libzfs/include/libzfs.h
index 3fff0ecdc7..6bf707289b 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/include/libzfs.h
+++ b/lib/libzfs/include/libzfs.h
@@ -535,6 +535,15 @@ extern int zfs_iscsi_perm_check(libzfs_handle_t *, char *, ucred_t *);
 extern int zfs_deleg_share_nfs(libzfs_handle_t *, char *, char *,
     void *, void *, int, zfs_share_op_t);
 
+/*
+ * When dealing with nvlists, verify() is extremely useful
+ */
+#ifdef NDEBUG
+#define	verify(EX)	((void)(EX))
+#else
+#define	verify(EX)	assert(EX)
+#endif
+
 /*
  * Utility function to convert a number to a human-readable form.
  */