diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 52a962d2d..07b543783 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -83,6 +83,8 @@ Release 1.1 (in development)
 
 * #590: Added ``caption`` option to graphviz directives.
 
+* #537: Added :confval:`nitpick_ignore`.
+
 * C++ domain now supports array definitions.
 
 
diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index a1f550ddf..368674692 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -232,6 +232,14 @@ General configuration
 
    .. versionadded:: 1.0
 
+.. confval:: nitpick_ignore
+
+   A list of ``(type, target)`` tuples (by default empty) that should be ignored
+   when generating warnings in "nitpicky mode".  Note that ``type`` should
+   include the domain name.  An example entry would be ``('py:func', 'int')``.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 1.1
+
 
 Project information
 -------------------
diff --git a/sphinx/config.py b/sphinx/config.py
index 90c4b5627..f4c0946b5 100644
--- a/sphinx/config.py
+++ b/sphinx/config.py
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ class Config(object):
         primary_domain = ('py', 'env'),
         needs_sphinx = (None, None),
         nitpicky = (False, 'env'),
+        nitpick_ignore = ([], 'env'),
 
         # HTML options
         html_theme = ('default', 'html'),
diff --git a/sphinx/environment.py b/sphinx/environment.py
index 1f8e00f56..0867eb74e 100644
--- a/sphinx/environment.py
+++ b/sphinx/environment.py
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ default_settings = {
 
 # This is increased every time an environment attribute is added
 # or changed to properly invalidate pickle files.
-ENV_VERSION = 40
+ENV_VERSION = 41
 
 
 default_substitutions = set([
@@ -340,6 +340,9 @@ class BuildEnvironment:
         # this is to invalidate old pickles
         self.version = ENV_VERSION
 
+        # make this a set for faster testing
+        self._nitpick_ignore = set(self.config.nitpick_ignore)
+
         # All "docnames" here are /-separated and relative and exclude
         # the source suffix.
 
@@ -1465,7 +1468,11 @@ class BuildEnvironment:
     def _warn_missing_reference(self, fromdoc, typ, target, node, domain):
         warn = node.get('refwarn')
         if self.config.nitpicky:
-            warn = True  # XXX process exceptions here
+            warn = True
+            if self._nitpick_ignore:
+                dtype = domain and '%s:%s' % (domain.name, typ) or typ
+                if (dtype, target) in self._nitpick_ignore:
+                    warn = False
         if not warn:
             return
         refdoc = node.get('refdoc', fromdoc)