diff --git a/Lib/optparse.py b/Lib/optparse.py
index 2cb21de97f4..e38030d463a 100644
--- a/Lib/optparse.py
+++ b/Lib/optparse.py
@@ -1274,9 +1274,19 @@ class OptionParser (OptionContainer):
             self.usage = usage
 
     def enable_interspersed_args(self):
+        """Set parsing to not stop on the first non-option, allowing
+        interspersing switches with command arguments. This is the
+        default behavior. See also disable_interspersed_args() and the
+        class documentation description of the attribute
+        allow_interspersed_args."""
         self.allow_interspersed_args = True
 
     def disable_interspersed_args(self):
+        """Set parsing to stop on the first non-option. Use this if
+        you have a command processor which runs another command that
+        has options of its own and you want to make sure these options
+        don't get confused.
+        """
         self.allow_interspersed_args = False
 
     def set_process_default_values(self, process):