diff --git a/gnu/packages/base.scm b/gnu/packages/base.scm
index bc74535..cf795b4 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/base.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/base.scm
@@ -267,7 +267,18 @@ interactive means to merge two files.")
                       ;; test-lock has performance issues on multi-core
                       ;; machines, it hangs or takes a long time to complete.
                       ;; This is a commit from gnulib to fix this issue.
-                      "findutils-gnulib-multi-core.patch"))))
+                      "findutils-gnulib-multi-core.patch"))
+            (modules '((guix build utils)))
+            (snippet
+             '(begin
+                ;; Completely disable the test-lock test.  According to the
+                ;; tests mentioned at
+                ;; https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2017-01/msg00034.html,
+                ;; our systems' glibc libraries are probably broken, so
+                ;; test-lock just hangs.
+                (substitute* "tests/Makefile.in"
+                  (("test-lock\\$\\(EXEEXT\\) ") ""))
+                #t))))
    (build-system gnu-build-system)
    (arguments
     `(#:configure-flags (list
diff --git a/gnu/packages/gettext.scm b/gnu/packages/gettext.scm
index 76c01b1..3aed953 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/gettext.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/gettext.scm
@@ -52,7 +52,20 @@
              ;; There is one commit in gettext and one commit
              ;; in gettext's embedded gnulib to fix this issue.
              (patches (search-patches "gettext-multi-core.patch"
-                                      "gettext-gnulib-multi-core.patch"))))
+                                      "gettext-gnulib-multi-core.patch"))
+             (modules '((guix build utils)))
+             (snippet
+              '(begin
+                 ;; Completely disable the test-lock test.  According to the
+                 ;; tests mentioned at
+                 ;; https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2017-01/msg00034.html,
+                 ;; our systems' glibc libraries are probably broken, so
+                 ;; test-lock just hangs.
+                 (substitute* "gettext-runtime/tests/Makefile.in"
+                   (("TESTS = test-lock\\$\\(EXEEXT\\)") "TESTS ="))
+                 (substitute* "gettext-tools/gnulib-tests/Makefile.in"
+                  (("test-lock\\$\\(EXEEXT\\) ") ""))
+                 #t))))
     (build-system gnu-build-system)
     (outputs '("out"
                "doc"))                            ;8 MiB of HTML
diff --git a/gnu/packages/libidn.scm b/gnu/packages/libidn.scm
index dfb1be6..6dc386d 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/libidn.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/libidn.scm
@@ -38,7 +38,18 @@
                                 ".tar.gz"))
             (sha256
              (base32
-              "068fjg2arlppjqqpzd714n1lf6gxkpac9v5yyvp1qwmv6nvam9s4"))))
+              "068fjg2arlppjqqpzd714n1lf6gxkpac9v5yyvp1qwmv6nvam9s4"))
+            (modules '((guix build utils)))
+            (snippet
+             '(begin
+                ;; Completely disable the test-lock test.  According to the
+                ;; tests mentioned at
+                ;; https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2017-01/msg00034.html,
+                ;; our systems' glibc libraries are probably broken, so
+                ;; test-lock just hangs.
+                (substitute* "lib/gltests/Makefile.in"
+                  (("test-lock\\$\\(EXEEXT\\) ") ""))
+                #t))))
    (build-system gnu-build-system)
 ;; FIXME: No Java and C# libraries are currently built.
    (synopsis "Internationalized string processing library")
diff --git a/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm b/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm
index df02f68..409e25e 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm
@@ -43,7 +43,18 @@
              ;; test-lock has performance issues on multi-core machines,
              ;; it hangs or takes a long time to complete.
              ;; This is a commit from gnulib to fix this issue.
-            (patches (search-patches "libunistring-gnulib-multi-core.patch"))))
+            (patches (search-patches "libunistring-gnulib-multi-core.patch"))
+            (modules '((guix build utils)))
+            (snippet
+             '(begin
+                ;; Completely disable the test-lock test.  According to the
+                ;; tests mentioned at
+                ;; https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2017-01/msg00034.html,
+                ;; our systems' glibc libraries are probably broken, so
+                ;; test-lock just hangs.
+                (substitute* "tests/Makefile.in"
+                  (("test-lock\\$\\(EXEEXT\\) ") ""))
+                #t))))
    (propagated-inputs (libiconv-if-needed))
    (build-system gnu-build-system)
    (arguments