diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
index 913c7fb51b18..6c8966dcf612 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
@@ -2148,6 +2148,14 @@ static bool tcp_write_xmit(struct sock *sk, unsigned int mss_now, int nonagle,
 				break;
 		}
 
+		/* Argh, we hit an empty skb(), presumably a thread
+		 * is sleeping in sendmsg()/sk_stream_wait_memory().
+		 * We do not want to send a pure-ack packet and have
+		 * a strange looking rtx queue with empty packet(s).
+		 */
+		if (TCP_SKB_CB(skb)->end_seq == TCP_SKB_CB(skb)->seq)
+			break;
+
 		if (unlikely(tcp_transmit_skb(sk, skb, 1, gfp)))
 			break;