diff --git a/docs/web.rst b/docs/web.rst
index 0e4987a9..c9697247 100644
--- a/docs/web.rst
+++ b/docs/web.rst
@@ -25,11 +25,21 @@
    These methods can be made asynchronous with one of the following
    decorators: `.gen.coroutine`, `.return_future`, or `asynchronous`.
 
+   To support a method not on this list, override the class variable
+   ``SUPPORTED_METHODS``::
+
+     class WebDAVHandler(RequestHandler):
+         SUPPORTED_METHODS = RequestHandler.SUPPORTED_METHODS + ('PROPFIND',)
+
+         def propfind(self):
+             pass
+
    .. automethod:: RequestHandler.get
-   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.post
-   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.put
-   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.delete
    .. automethod:: RequestHandler.head
+   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.post
+   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.delete
+   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.patch
+   .. automethod:: RequestHandler.put
    .. automethod:: RequestHandler.options
 
    Input
diff --git a/tornado/web.py b/tornado/web.py
index 9bc12933..0a50f793 100644
--- a/tornado/web.py
+++ b/tornado/web.py
@@ -144,12 +144,12 @@ May be overridden by passing a ``min_version`` keyword argument.
 .. versionadded:: 3.2.1
 """
 
-class RequestHandler(object):
-    """Subclass this class and define `get()` or `post()` to make a handler.
 
-    If you want to support more methods than the standard GET/HEAD/POST, you
-    should override the class variable ``SUPPORTED_METHODS`` in your
-    `RequestHandler` subclass.
+class RequestHandler(object):
+    """Base class for HTTP request handlers.
+
+    Subclasses must define at least one of the methods defined in the
+    "Entry points" section below.
     """
     SUPPORTED_METHODS = ("GET", "HEAD", "POST", "DELETE", "PATCH", "PUT",
                          "OPTIONS")