diff --git a/docs/curl.1 b/docs/curl.1
index 5faff9c7f..f0790e547 100644
--- a/docs/curl.1
+++ b/docs/curl.1
@@ -844,7 +844,8 @@ FTP write error. The transfer was reported bad by the server.
 .IP 21
 FTP quote error. A quote command returned error from the server.
 .IP 22
-HTTP not found. The requested page was not found. This return code only
+HTTP page not retrieved. The requested url was not found or returned another
+error with the HTTP error code being 400 or above. This return code only
 appears if --fail is used.
 .IP 23
 Write error. Curl couldn't write data to a local filesystem or similar.