diff --git a/ring-core/src/ring/middleware/multipart_params.clj b/ring-core/src/ring/middleware/multipart_params.clj
index b3b06ecc..8bdb3a7b 100644
--- a/ring-core/src/ring/middleware/multipart_params.clj
+++ b/ring-core/src/ring/middleware/multipart_params.clj
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 (ns ring.middleware.multipart-params
   "Parse multipart upload into params."
-  (:use [clojure.contrib.def :only (defvar-)]
-        [ring.middleware.params :only (assoc-param)])
+  (:use [ring.middleware.params :only (assoc-param)])
   (:import (org.apache.commons.fileupload
              FileUpload RequestContext)
            (org.apache.commons.fileupload.disk
@@ -14,12 +13,14 @@
   (if-let [^String content-type (:content-type request)]
     (.startsWith content-type "multipart/form-data")))
 
-(defvar- ^FileUpload file-upload
+(def ^{:private true
+       :type FileUpload
+       :doc "Uploader class to save multipart form values to temporary files."}
+  file-upload
   (FileUpload.
     (doto (DiskFileItemFactory.)
       (.setSizeThreshold -1)
-      (.setFileCleaningTracker nil)))
-  "Uploader class to save multipart form values to temporary files.")
+      (.setFileCleaningTracker nil))))
 
 (defn- request-context
   "Create a RequestContext object from a request map."
diff --git a/ring-core/test/ring/middleware/multipart_params_test.clj b/ring-core/test/ring/middleware/multipart_params_test.clj
index a2c96f8f..7c68afd4 100644
--- a/ring-core/test/ring/middleware/multipart_params_test.clj
+++ b/ring-core/test/ring/middleware/multipart_params_test.clj
@@ -6,15 +6,22 @@
             [ring.util.test :as tu])
   (:import java.io.File))
 
-(defvar- upload-content-type
+(def ^{:private true}
+  upload-content-type
   "multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryAyGUY6aMxOI6UF5s")
 
-(defvar- upload-content-length 188)
+(def ^{:private true}
+  upload-content-length
+  188)
 
-(defvar- upload-body (tu/string-input-stream
-  "------WebKitFormBoundaryAyGUY6aMxOI6UF5s\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"upload\"; filename=\"test.txt\"\r\nContent-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\nfoo\r\n\r\n------WebKitFormBoundaryAyGUY6aMxOI6UF5s--"))
+(def ^{:private true}
+  upload-body
+  (tu/string-input-stream
+    "------WebKitFormBoundaryAyGUY6aMxOI6UF5s\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"upload\"; filename=\"test.txt\"\r\nContent-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\nfoo\r\n\r\n------WebKitFormBoundaryAyGUY6aMxOI6UF5s--"))
 
-(defvar- wrapped-echo (wrap-multipart-params identity))
+(def ^{:private true}
+  wrapped-echo
+  (wrap-multipart-params identity))
 
 (deftest test-wrap-multipart-params
   (let [req {:content-type   upload-content-type