diff --git a/include/wx/regex.h b/include/wx/regex.h
index 0b1836e344..ac70ff3907 100644
--- a/include/wx/regex.h
+++ b/include/wx/regex.h
@@ -142,6 +142,8 @@ public:
     int ReplaceAll(wxString *text, const wxString& replacement) const
         { return Replace(text, replacement, 0); }
 
+    static wxString QuoteMeta(const wxString& str);
+
     // dtor not virtual, don't derive from this class
     ~wxRegEx();
 
diff --git a/interface/wx/regex.h b/interface/wx/regex.h
index 0b1debcabd..0a6f24558c 100644
--- a/interface/wx/regex.h
+++ b/interface/wx/regex.h
@@ -250,5 +250,31 @@ public:
         Replace the first occurrence.
     */
     int ReplaceFirst(wxString* text, const wxString& replacement) const;
+
+    /**
+        Escapes any of the characters having special meaning for wxRegEx.
+
+        Currently the following characters are special: \\, ^, $, ., |, ?, *,
+        +, (, ), [, ], { and }. All occurrences of any of these characters in
+        the passed string are escaped, i.e. a backslash is inserted before
+        them, to remove their special meaning.
+
+        For example:
+        @code
+            wxString quoted = wxRegEx::QuoteMeta("foo.*bar");
+            assert( quoted == R"(foo\.\*bar)" );
+        @endcode
+
+        This function can be useful when using wxRegEx to search for a literal
+        string entered by user, for example.
+
+        @param str
+            A string that may contain metacharacters to escape.
+
+        @return A string with all metacharacters escaped.
+
+        @since 3.1.3
+    */
+    static wxString QuoteMeta(const wxString& str);
 };
 
diff --git a/src/common/regex.cpp b/src/common/regex.cpp
index d9151a67ed..2e48d2f592 100644
--- a/src/common/regex.cpp
+++ b/src/common/regex.cpp
@@ -690,4 +690,29 @@ int wxRegEx::Replace(wxString *pattern,
     return m_impl->Replace(pattern, replacement, maxMatches);
 }
 
+wxString wxRegEx::QuoteMeta(const wxString& str)
+{
+    static const wxString s_strMetaChars = wxS("\\^$.|?*+()[]{}");
+
+    wxString strEscaped;
+
+    // This is the maximal possible length of the resulting string, if every
+    // character were escaped.
+    strEscaped.reserve(str.length() * 2);
+
+    for ( wxString::const_iterator it = str.begin(); it != str.end(); ++it )
+    {
+        if ( s_strMetaChars.find(*it) != wxString::npos )
+        {
+            strEscaped += wxS('\\');
+        }
+
+        strEscaped += *it;
+    }
+
+    strEscaped.shrink_to_fit();
+
+    return strEscaped;
+}
+
 #endif // wxUSE_REGEX
diff --git a/tests/regex/wxregextest.cpp b/tests/regex/wxregextest.cpp
index c65dd71714..b731caa0fc 100644
--- a/tests/regex/wxregextest.cpp
+++ b/tests/regex/wxregextest.cpp
@@ -334,5 +334,14 @@ CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE_REGISTRATION(wxRegExTestSuite);
 // also include in its own registry so that these tests can be run alone
 CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE_NAMED_REGISTRATION(wxRegExTestSuite, "wxRegExTestSuite");
 
+TEST_CASE("wxRegEx::QuoteMeta", "[regex][meta]")
+{
+    CHECK( wxRegEx::QuoteMeta("") == "" );
+    CHECK( wxRegEx::QuoteMeta("a") == "a" );
+    CHECK( wxRegEx::QuoteMeta("?") == "\\?" );
+    CHECK( wxRegEx::QuoteMeta("\\") == "\\\\" );
+    CHECK( wxRegEx::QuoteMeta("\\?!") == "\\\\\\?!" );
+    CHECK( wxRegEx::QuoteMeta(":foo.*bar") == ":foo\\.\\*bar" );
+}
 
 #endif // wxUSE_REGEX