diff --git a/share/completions/kldload.fish b/share/completions/kldload.fish
index 4e430911a..2eccf2027 100644
--- a/share/completions/kldload.fish
+++ b/share/completions/kldload.fish
@@ -1,9 +1,30 @@
 # Completions for the FreeBSD `kldload` kernel module load utility
+function __fish_list_kldload_options
+	set -l klds (__fish_complete_suffix /boot/kernel/(commandline -ct) ".ko" | string replace -r '.*/(.+)\\.ko' '$1');
+	# Completing available klds is fast, but completing it with a call to __fish_whatis
+	# is decidedly not. With 846 modules (FreeBSD 11.1), fish --profile 'complete -C"kldload "' returns the following:
+	# 10671   11892698    > complete -C"kldload "
+	# A 12 second completion delay is obviously out of the question, so don't provide a description unless there are
+	# fewer than 50 results.
+	# Additionally, we can halve the time by not shelling out to `whatis` if we know the man file for the kernel module
+	# in question does not exist, since the paths are hardcoded.
+	set -l kld_count (count $klds)
+	if test $kld_count -le 50 -a $kld_count -gt 0
+		# print name and description
+		for kld in $klds
+			printf '%s\t%s\n' $kld (test -e /usr/share/man/man4/$kld.4.gz;
+				and __fish_whatis $kld; or echo "kernel module")
+		end
+	else if test $kld_count -gt 0
+		# print name only
+		printf '%s\n' $klds
+	else
+		# print name only (description won't exist since the kernel module isn't installed)
+		__fish_complete_suffix .ko
+	end
+end
+
 
 # Only attempt to match a local file if there isn't a match in /boot/kernel,
 # as odds are that is the desired source.
-complete -c kldload -xa '(
-	set results (__fish_complete_suffix /boot/kernel/(commandline -ct) ".ko" | sed "s@.*/@@g;s/\.ko//");
-	set -q results[1]; and printf "%s\n" $results;
-	or __fish_complete_suffix .ko
-)'
+complete -c kldload -xa '(__fish_list_kldload_options)'