diff --git a/completions/ps b/completions/ps
index d32083ecea4..38732d183b2 100644
--- a/completions/ps
+++ b/completions/ps
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ _comp_cmd_ps()
         --format | ?(-)[Oo] | [^-]*[Oo])
             # TODO: This doesn't work well when there are multiple options for
             # the non-first item (similarly to useradd --groups and others).
-            _comp_delimited , -W "$("$1" L | awk '{ print $1 }')"
+            local labels=$("$1" L | awk '{ print $1 }')
+            _comp_delimited , -W '$labels'
             return
             ;;
     esac
diff --git a/completions/ss b/completions/ss
index 08ddf5edc0a..e383fe57a8a 100644
--- a/completions/ss
+++ b/completions/ss
@@ -16,8 +16,9 @@ _comp_cmd_ss()
             return
             ;;
         --query | -${noargopts}A)
-            _comp_delimited , -W "$("$1" --help |
-                command sed -e 's/|/ /g' -ne 's/.*QUERY := {\([^}]*\)}.*/\1/p')"
+            local queries=$("$1" --help |
+                command sed -e 's/|/ /g' -ne 's/.*QUERY := {\([^}]*\)}.*/\1/p')
+            _comp_delimited , -W '$queries'
             return
             ;;
         --diag | --filter | -${noargopts}[DF])