diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 7702531bc3..01b977013a 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -286,6 +286,13 @@ endif()
 set(LEANC_STATIC_LINKER_FLAGS "${LEANC_STATIC_LINKER_FLAGS} ${LEAN_CXX_STDLIB}")
 set(LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS "${LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} ${LEAN_CXX_STDLIB}")
 
+# get rid of unused parts of C++ stdlib
+if(${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Darwin")
+  set(LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS "${LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} -Wl,-dead_strip")
+else()
+  set(LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS "${LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} -Wl,--gc-sections")
+endif()
+
 set(LEANC_STATIC_LINKER_FLAGS "${LEANC_STATIC_LINKER_FLAGS} -lm")
 set(LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS "${LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} -lm")