diff --git a/modules/imgproc/CMakeLists.txt b/modules/imgproc/CMakeLists.txt
index 10aed6bedd..7bf6087a9a 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/modules/imgproc/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ ocv_add_dispatched_file(smooth SSE2 SSE4_1 AVX2)
 ocv_add_dispatched_file(sumpixels SSE2 AVX2 AVX512_SKX)
 ocv_define_module(imgproc opencv_core WRAP java objc python js)
 
+if(OPENCV_CORE_EXCLUDE_C_API)
+  ocv_target_compile_definitions(${the_module} PRIVATE "OPENCV_EXCLUDE_C_API=1")
+endif()
+
 if(HAVE_IPP)
   # OPENCV_IPP_ENABLE_ALL is defined in modules/core/CMakeList.txt
   OCV_OPTION(OPENCV_IPP_GAUSSIAN_BLUR "Enable IPP optimizations for GaussianBlur (+8Mb in binary size)" OPENCV_IPP_ENABLE_ALL)
diff --git a/modules/imgproc/src/color.cpp b/modules/imgproc/src/color.cpp
index 703511b9cf..0d89b571ab 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/src/color.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/src/color.cpp
@@ -387,6 +387,7 @@ void cvtColor( InputArray _src, OutputArray _dst, int code, int dcn, AlgorithmHi
 }
 } //namespace cv
 
+#ifndef OPENCV_EXCLUDE_C_API
 
 CV_IMPL void
 cvCvtColor( const CvArr* srcarr, CvArr* dstarr, int code )
@@ -397,3 +398,5 @@ cvCvtColor( const CvArr* srcarr, CvArr* dstarr, int code )
     cv::cvtColor(src, dst, code, dst.channels());
     CV_Assert( dst.data == dst0.data );
 }
+
+#endif
diff --git a/modules/imgproc/src/resize.cpp b/modules/imgproc/src/resize.cpp
index 3750690632..4b317c6a5a 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/src/resize.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/src/resize.cpp
@@ -4245,6 +4245,7 @@ void cv::resize( InputArray _src, OutputArray _dst, Size dsize,
     hal::resize(src.type(), src.data, src.step, src.cols, src.rows, dst.data, dst.step, dst.cols, dst.rows, inv_scale_x, inv_scale_y, interpolation);
 }
 
+#ifndef OPENCV_EXCLUDE_C_API
 
 CV_IMPL void
 cvResize( const CvArr* srcarr, CvArr* dstarr, int method )
@@ -4255,4 +4256,5 @@ cvResize( const CvArr* srcarr, CvArr* dstarr, int method )
         (double)dst.rows/src.rows, method );
 }
 
+#endif
 /* End of file. */