diff --git a/pkg/runtime/state.go b/pkg/runtime/state.go
index 3fe93aa18..389a0e9dc 100644
--- a/pkg/runtime/state.go
+++ b/pkg/runtime/state.go
@@ -54,7 +54,9 @@ func NewEmptyState(options *cli.TOptions, strictMode bool) *State {
 		Inrec:                nil,
 		Context:              nil,
 		Oosvars:              oosvars,
-		FilterExpression:     mlrval.TRUE,
+		// XXX
+		//FilterExpression:     mlrval.TRUE,
+		FilterExpression:     mlrval.NULL,
 		Stack:                NewStack(),
 		regexCapturesByFrame: regexCapturesByFrame,
 
diff --git a/pkg/transformers/put_or_filter.go b/pkg/transformers/put_or_filter.go
index 648595ce2..0b2f05ead 100644
--- a/pkg/transformers/put_or_filter.go
+++ b/pkg/transformers/put_or_filter.go
@@ -364,7 +364,10 @@ func transformerPutOrFilterParseCLI(
 		dslInstanceType = cst.DSLInstanceTypeFilter
 	}
 
+	doFilter := (verb == "filter")
+
 	transformer, err := NewTransformerPut(
+		doFilter,
 		dslStrings,
 		dslInstanceType,
 		presets,
@@ -390,6 +393,7 @@ func transformerPutOrFilterParseCLI(
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------
 type TransformerPut struct {
+	doFilter             bool // false for the put verb, true for the filter verb
 	cstRootNode          *cst.RootNode
 	runtimeState         *runtime.State
 	callCount            int
@@ -399,6 +403,7 @@ type TransformerPut struct {
 }
 
 func NewTransformerPut(
+	doFilter bool, // false for the put verb, true for the filter verb
 	dslStrings []string,
 	dslInstanceType cst.DSLInstanceType,
 	presets []string,
@@ -483,6 +488,7 @@ func NewTransformerPut(
 	}
 
 	return &TransformerPut{
+		doFilter:             doFilter,
 		cstRootNode:          cstRootNode,
 		runtimeState:         runtimeState,
 		callCount:            0,
@@ -527,10 +533,37 @@ func (tr *TransformerPut) Transform(
 		}
 
 		if !tr.suppressOutputRecord {
+			// The tr.runtimeState.FilterExpression defaults to null. It evaluates to null
+			// for assignment statements, etc.
+			// * If the verb is put, then tr.runtimeState.FilterExpression will get set to
+			//   something only when a filter DSL statement is encountered.
+			// * If the verb is filter, then we insist that the expression evaluate to either
+			//   boolean, or absent. The latter is for Miller's record-heterogeneity guarantees,
+			//   e.g. mlr filter '$x > 10' for records not having a $x.
+
 			filterBool, isBool := tr.runtimeState.FilterExpression.GetBoolValue()
-			if !isBool {
-				filterBool = false
+
+			if tr.doFilter {
+				// This is mlr filter
+				if !isBool {
+					if tr.runtimeState.FilterExpression.IsAbsent() {
+						filterBool = false
+					} else {
+						fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr,
+							"Filter expression did not evaluate to boolean: got %s value %s",
+							tr.runtimeState.FilterExpression.String(),
+							tr.runtimeState.FilterExpression.GetTypeName(),
+						)
+						os.Exit(1)
+					}
+				}
+			} else {
+				// This is mlr put.
+				if !isBool {
+					filterBool = true
+				}
 			}
+
 			wantToEmit := lib.BooleanXOR(filterBool, tr.invertFilter)
 			if wantToEmit {
 				outputRecordsAndContexts.PushBack(types.NewRecordAndContext(outrec, &context))
diff --git a/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/cmd b/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/cmd
index 8db8d1d62..b9f0a58f9 100644
--- a/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/cmd
+++ b/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/cmd
@@ -1 +1 @@
-mlr --opprint --from test/input/abixy filter -e -f ${CASEDIR}/mlr
+mlr --opprint --from test/input/abixy filter -f ${CASEDIR}/mlr
diff --git a/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/expout b/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/expout
index e69de29bb..11ad96e44 100644
--- a/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/expout
+++ b/test/cases/dsl-multipart-scripts/0005/expout
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+a   b   i x          y
+eks zee 7 0.61178406 0.18788492