diff --git a/src/jbuild.ml b/src/jbuild.ml
index db050cb4..ec76cdc2 100644
--- a/src/jbuild.ml
+++ b/src/jbuild.ml
@@ -264,8 +264,10 @@ module Named = struct
       peek_exn >>= function
       | List (_, Atom (loc, A s) :: _) when
           String.length s > 1 && s.[0] = ':' ->
-        binding elem >>| fun (name, values) ->
-        Left (name, (loc, values))
+        let name = String.sub s ~pos:1 ~len:(String.length s - 1) in
+        enter (junk >>= fun () ->
+               repeat elem >>| fun values ->
+               Left (name, (loc, values)))
       | _ ->
         elem >>| fun elem -> Right elem
     in
diff --git a/src/stdune/sexp.ml b/src/stdune/sexp.ml
index 651e4688..01134809 100644
--- a/src/stdune/sexp.ml
+++ b/src/stdune/sexp.ml
@@ -380,26 +380,6 @@ module Of_sexp = struct
               }
         "Unknown constructor %s" name
 
-  let binding t =
-    let t name = repeat t >>| fun t -> (name, t) in
-    next_with_user_context (fun uc sexp ->
-      match sexp with
-      | Atom (loc, A s) ->
-        let ctx = Values (loc, Some s, uc) in
-        result ctx (t s ctx [])
-      | Template { loc; _ }
-      | Quoted_string (loc, _) ->
-        of_sexp_error loc "Atom expected"
-      | List (loc, []) ->
-        of_sexp_error loc "Non-empty list expected"
-      | List (loc, name :: args) ->
-        match name with
-        | Quoted_string (loc, _) | List (loc, _) | Template { loc; _ } ->
-          of_sexp_error loc "Atom expected"
-        | Atom (s_loc, A s) ->
-          let ctx loc = Values (loc, Some s, uc) in
-          result (ctx s_loc) (t s (ctx loc) args))
-
   let sum cstrs =
     next_with_user_context (fun uc sexp ->
       match sexp with
diff --git a/src/stdune/sexp.mli b/src/stdune/sexp.mli
index de2aa7ee..948a3d80 100644
--- a/src/stdune/sexp.mli
+++ b/src/stdune/sexp.mli
@@ -201,8 +201,6 @@ module Of_sexp : sig
       list parser. *)
   val sum : (string * 'a t) list -> 'a t
 
-  val binding : 'a t -> (string * ('a list)) t
-
   (** Check the result of a list parser, and raise a properly located
       error in case of failure. *)
   val map_validate