diff --git a/share/functions/fish_default_key_bindings.fish b/share/functions/fish_default_key_bindings.fish
index ff7b333eb..1416d2d6f 100644
--- a/share/functions/fish_default_key_bindings.fish
+++ b/share/functions/fish_default_key_bindings.fish
@@ -111,6 +111,11 @@ function fish_default_key_bindings -d "Default (Emacs-like) key bindings for fis
 
     # term-specific special bindings
     switch "$TERM"
+        case 'st-256color'
+            # suckless and bash/zsh/fish have a different approach to how the terminal
+            # should be configured but the major effect is that delete doesn't work.
+            # just work around that for now
+            bind --preset $argv \e\[P delete-char
         case 'rxvt*'
             bind --preset $argv \e\[8~ end-of-line
             bind --preset $argv \eOc forward-word