diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 45b5de443..ceb73d04e 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@
           one with apostrophes (thanks to Tomas Babej).
 - TW-1466 UDA with type duration is stored as text/string (thanks to Thomas
           Sullivan).
+- TW-1472 Syntactic sugar morphs into regex expressions, even if turned off
+          (thanks to Richard Boß).
 - TW-1475 task config expands values with unnecessary spaces (thanks to Tomas
           Babej).
 - TW-1478 due:easter sets the easter of the current year regardless of the date
diff --git a/src/Variant.cpp b/src/Variant.cpp
index 2ccb022da..87bed2898 100644
--- a/src/Variant.cpp
+++ b/src/Variant.cpp
@@ -937,7 +937,25 @@ bool Variant::operator_match (const Variant& other, const Task& task) const
   }
   else
   {
-    if (find (left._string, pattern, searchCaseSensitive) != std::string::npos)
+    // If pattern starts with '^', look for a leftmost compare only.
+    if (pattern[0] == '^' &&
+        find (left._string,
+              pattern.substr (1),
+              searchCaseSensitive) == 0)
+    {
+      return true;
+    }
+
+    // If pattern ends with '$', look for a rightmost compare only.
+    else if (pattern[pattern.length () - 1] == '$' &&
+             find (left._string,
+                   pattern.substr (0, pattern.length () - 1),
+                   searchCaseSensitive) == (left._string.length () - pattern.length () + 1))
+    {
+      return true;
+    }
+
+    else if (find (left._string, pattern, searchCaseSensitive) != std::string::npos)
       return true;
 
     // If the above did not match, and the left source is "description", then
diff --git a/test/search.t b/test/search.t
index 7a06a0090..4e1d0e1d2 100755
--- a/test/search.t
+++ b/test/search.t
@@ -65,7 +65,43 @@ class TestSearch(TestCase):
         self.assertIn("one", out)
         self.assertNotIn("two", out)
 
-# TODO Search with rc.regex on and off
+class TestBug1472(TestCase):
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        """Executed once before any test in the class"""
+        cls.t = Task()
+        cls.t.config("verbose", "nothing")
+        cls.t("add A to Z")
+        cls.t("add Z to A")
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        """Executed before each test in the class"""
+
+    def test_startswith_regex(self):
+        """Verify .startswith works with regexes"""
+        code, out, err = self.t("rc.regex:on rc.debug.parser=3 description.startswith:A ls")
+        self.assertIn("A to Z", out)
+        self.assertNotIn("Z to A", out)
+
+    def test_endswith_regex(self):
+        """Verify .endswith works with regexes"""
+        code, out, err = self.t("rc.regex:on description.endswith:Z ls")
+        self.assertIn("A to Z", out)
+        self.assertNotIn("Z to A", out)
+
+    def test_startswith_no_regex(self):
+        """Verify .startswith works without regexes"""
+        code, out, err = self.t("rc.regex:off description.startswith:A ls")
+        self.assertIn("A to Z", out)
+        self.assertNotIn("Z to A", out)
+
+    def test_endswith_no_regex(self):
+        """Verify .endswith works without regexes"""
+        code, out, err = self.t("rc.regex:off description.endswith:Z ls")
+        self.assertIn("A to Z", out)
+        self.assertNotIn("Z to A", out)
+
+
 # TODO Search with patterns