diff --git a/crates/polars-plan/Cargo.toml b/crates/polars-plan/Cargo.toml
index d70a90914835..b4f920002745 100644
--- a/crates/polars-plan/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/polars-plan/Cargo.toml
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ peaks = ["polars-ops/peaks"]
 bigidx = ["polars-core/bigidx"]
 
 panic_on_schema = []
+lazy_regex = ["regex"]
 
 [package.metadata.docs.rs]
 all-features = true
diff --git a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/mod.rs b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/mod.rs
index 3ca6b5f2c7c9..fe3ee5c1de57 100644
--- a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/mod.rs
@@ -878,7 +878,7 @@ impl From<StringFunction> for SpecialEq<Arc<dyn SeriesUdf>> {
     fn from(func: StringFunction) -> Self {
         use StringFunction::*;
         match func {
-            #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
             Contains { literal, strict } => map_as_slice!(strings::contains, literal, strict),
             CountMatches(literal) => {
                 map_as_slice!(strings::count_matches, literal)
@@ -924,7 +924,7 @@ impl From<StringFunction> for SpecialEq<Arc<dyn SeriesUdf>> {
             ConcatVertical(delimiter) => map!(strings::concat, &delimiter),
             #[cfg(feature = "concat_str")]
             ConcatHorizontal(delimiter) => map_as_slice!(strings::concat_hor, &delimiter),
-            #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
             Replace { n, literal } => map_as_slice!(strings::replace, literal, n),
             Uppercase => map!(strings::uppercase),
             Lowercase => map!(strings::lowercase),
diff --git a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/strings.rs b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/strings.rs
index 4199475b787e..aa31406f084e 100644
--- a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/strings.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/function_expr/strings.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use std::borrow::Cow;
 use arrow::legacy::utils::CustomIterTools;
 #[cfg(feature = "timezones")]
 use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 use regex::{escape, Regex};
 #[cfg(feature = "serde")]
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ pub enum StringFunction {
     ConcatHorizontal(String),
     #[cfg(feature = "concat_str")]
     ConcatVertical(String),
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     Contains {
         literal: bool,
         strict: bool,
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ pub enum StringFunction {
         dtype: Option<DataType>,
         infer_schema_len: Option<usize>,
     },
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     Replace {
         // negative is replace all
         // how many matches to replace
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ impl StringFunction {
         match self {
             #[cfg(feature = "concat_str")]
             ConcatVertical(_) | ConcatHorizontal(_) => mapper.with_dtype(DataType::Utf8),
-            #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
             Contains { .. } => mapper.with_dtype(DataType::Boolean),
             CountMatches(_) => mapper.with_dtype(DataType::UInt32),
             EndsWith | StartsWith => mapper.with_dtype(DataType::Boolean),
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ impl StringFunction {
             JsonExtract { dtype, .. } => mapper.with_opt_dtype(dtype.clone()),
             LenBytes => mapper.with_dtype(DataType::UInt32),
             LenChars => mapper.with_dtype(DataType::UInt32),
-            #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
             Replace { .. } => mapper.with_same_dtype(),
             #[cfg(feature = "temporal")]
             Strptime(dtype, _) => mapper.with_dtype(dtype.clone()),
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ impl StringFunction {
 impl Display for StringFunction {
     fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
         let s = match self {
-            #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
             StringFunction::Contains { .. } => "contains",
             StringFunction::CountMatches(_) => "count_matches",
             StringFunction::EndsWith { .. } => "ends_with",
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ impl Display for StringFunction {
             StringFunction::LenChars => "len_chars",
             #[cfg(feature = "string_justify")]
             StringFunction::RJust { .. } => "rjust",
-            #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
             StringFunction::Replace { .. } => "replace",
             StringFunction::Slice(_, _) => "slice",
             StringFunction::StartsWith { .. } => "starts_with",
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ pub(super) fn len_bytes(s: &Series) -> PolarsResult<Series> {
     Ok(ca.str_len_bytes().into_series())
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 pub(super) fn contains(s: &[Series], literal: bool, strict: bool) -> PolarsResult<Series> {
     let ca = s[0].utf8()?;
     let pat = s[1].utf8()?;
@@ -569,7 +569,7 @@ impl From<StringFunction> for FunctionExpr {
     }
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 fn get_pat(pat: &Utf8Chunked) -> PolarsResult<&str> {
     pat.get(0).ok_or_else(
         || polars_err!(ComputeError: "pattern cannot be 'null' in 'replace' expression"),
@@ -595,12 +595,12 @@ where
     out
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 fn is_literal_pat(pat: &str) -> bool {
     pat.chars().all(|c| !c.is_ascii_punctuation())
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 fn replace_n<'a>(
     ca: &'a Utf8Chunked,
     pat: &'a Utf8Chunked,
@@ -661,7 +661,7 @@ fn replace_n<'a>(
     }
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 fn replace_all<'a>(
     ca: &'a Utf8Chunked,
     pat: &'a Utf8Chunked,
@@ -706,7 +706,7 @@ fn replace_all<'a>(
     }
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+#[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
 pub(super) fn replace(s: &[Series], literal: bool, n: i64) -> PolarsResult<Series> {
     let column = &s[0];
     let pat = &s[1];
diff --git a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/string.rs b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/string.rs
index 7e74806d7f31..196aca691475 100644
--- a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/string.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/string.rs
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ pub struct StringNameSpace(pub(crate) Expr);
 
 impl StringNameSpace {
     /// Check if a string value contains a literal substring.
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     pub fn contains_literal(self, pat: Expr) -> Expr {
         self.0.map_many_private(
             FunctionExpr::StringExpr(StringFunction::Contains {
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ impl StringNameSpace {
 
     /// Check if this column of strings contains a Regex. If `strict` is `true`, then it is an error if any `pat` is
     /// an invalid regex, whereas if `strict` is `false`, an invalid regex will simply evaluate to `false`.
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     pub fn contains(self, pat: Expr, strict: bool) -> Expr {
         self.0.map_many_private(
             FunctionExpr::StringExpr(StringFunction::Contains {
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ impl StringNameSpace {
             .map_many_private(StringFunction::SplitN(n).into(), &[by], false, false)
     }
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     /// Replace values that match a regex `pat` with a `value`.
     pub fn replace(self, pat: Expr, value: Expr, literal: bool) -> Expr {
         self.0.map_many_private(
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ impl StringNameSpace {
         )
     }
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     /// Replace values that match a regex `pat` with a `value`.
     pub fn replace_n(self, pat: Expr, value: Expr, literal: bool, n: i64) -> Expr {
         self.0.map_many_private(
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ impl StringNameSpace {
         )
     }
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "regex")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "lazy_regex")]
     /// Replace all values that match a regex `pat` with a `value`.
     pub fn replace_all(self, pat: Expr, value: Expr, literal: bool) -> Expr {
         self.0.map_many_private(