diff --git a/lib/Expect.pm b/lib/Expect.pm
index fc48140..3db44ca 100644
--- a/lib/Expect.pm
+++ b/lib/Expect.pm
@@ -507,7 +507,10 @@ sub expect {
 		print STDERR ("expect(): handling param '$parm'...\n")
 			if $Expect::Debug;
 		if ( ref($parm) ) {
-			if ( ref($parm) eq 'ARRAY' ) {
+			if ( ref($parm) eq 'Regexp' ) {
+                push @pattern_list, [ $parm_nr, '-re', $parm, undef ];
+            }
+			elsif ( ref($parm) eq 'ARRAY' ) {
 				my $err = _add_patterns_to_list(
 					\@pattern_list, \@timeout_list,
 					$parm_nr,       $parm
@@ -2105,8 +2108,9 @@ makes the pty transparently act like a bidirectional pipe.
 
 Given $timeout in seconds Expect will wait for $object's handle to produce
 one of the match_patterns, which are matched exactly by default. If you
-want a regexp match, prefix the pattern with '-re'.
+want a regexp match, use a regexp object (C<qr//>) or prefix the pattern with '-re'.
 
+  $object->expect(15, 'match me exactly', qr/match\s+me\s+exactly/);
   $object->expect(15, 'match me exactly','-re','match\s+me\s+exactly');
 
 Due to o/s limitations $timeout should be a round number. If $timeout
diff --git a/t/01-test.t b/t/01-test.t
index b2dc02e..b6373a9 100644
--- a/t/01-test.t
+++ b/t/01-test.t
@@ -445,20 +445,13 @@ subtest respawn => sub {
     like $@, qr/^Cannot reuse an object with an already spawned command/;
 };
 
-subtest "implicit timeout" => sub {
-	diag "Basic tests...";
-	plan tests => 4;
+subtest "regexp ref" => sub {
+	plan tests => 1;
 
 	my $exp = Expect->spawn("$Perl -v");
-    $exp->timeout(10);
-
-	ok( defined $exp );
 	$exp->log_user(0);
-	is( $exp->expect( "krzlbrtz",   "Copyright" ), 2 );
-	is( $exp->expect( "Larry Wall", "krzlbrtz" ),  1 );
-	ok( not $exp->expect( "Copyright" ) );
-};
-
+	is( $exp->expect( 10, qr/L.*[WH]all/ ), 1 );
+  };
 
 use Test::Builder;
 my $Test = Test::Builder->new;