diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b404471..2caa94f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -92,6 +92,44 @@ if isMatch, _ := re.MatchString(`Something to match`); isMatch {
 
 This feature is a work in progress and I'm open to ideas for more things to put here (maybe more relaxed character escaping rules?).
 
+## Catastrophic Backtracking and Timeouts
+
+`regexp2` supports features that can lead to catastrophic backtracking.
+`Regexp.MatchTimeout` can be set to to limit the impact of such behavior; the
+match will fail with an error after approximately MatchTimeout. No timeout
+checks are done by default.
+
+Timeout checking is not free. The current timeout checking implementation starts
+a background worker that updates a clock value approximately once every 100
+milliseconds. The matching code compares this value against the precomputed
+deadline for the match. The performance impact is as follows.
+
+1.  A match with a timeout runs almost as fast as a match without a timeout.
+2.  If any live matches have a timeout, there will be a background CPU load
+    (`~0.15%` currently on a modern machine). This load will remain constant
+    regardless of the number of matches done including matches done in parallel.
+3.  If no live matches are using a timeout, the background load will remain
+    until the longest deadline (match timeout + the time when the match started)
+    is reached. E.g., if you set a timeout of one minute the load will persist
+    for approximately a minute even if the match finishes quickly.
+
+Some alternative implementations were considered and ruled out. 
+
+1.  **time.Now()** - This was the initial timeout implementation. It called `time.Now()`
+    and compared the result to the deadline approximately once every 1000 matching steps.
+    Adding a timeout to a simple match increased the cost from ~45ns to ~3000ns).
+2.  **time.AfterFunc** - This approach entails using `time.AfterFunc` to set an `expired`
+    atomic boolean value. However it increases the cost of handling a simple match 
+    with a timeout from ~45ns to ~360ns and was therefore ruled out.
+3.  **counter** - In this approach an atomic variable tracks the number of live matches
+    with timeouts. The background clock stops when the counter hits zero. The benefit
+    of this approach is that the background load will stop more quickly (after the
+    last match has finished as opposed to waiting until the deadline for the last
+    match). However this approach requires more atomic variable updates and has poorer
+    performance when multiple matches are executed concurrently. (The cost of a
+    single match jumps from ~45ns to ~65ns, and the cost of running matches on
+    all 12 available CPUs jumps from ~400ns to ~730ns).
+
 ## ECMAScript compatibility mode
 In this mode the engine provides compatibility with the [regex engine](https://tc39.es/ecma262/multipage/text-processing.html#sec-regexp-regular-expression-objects) described in the ECMAScript specification.
 
diff --git a/fastclock.go b/fastclock.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4227eda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fastclock.go
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+package regexp2
+
+import (
+	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// fasttime holds a time value (ticks since clock initialization)
+type fasttime int64
+
+// fastclock provides a fast clock implementation.
+//
+// A background goroutine periodically stores the current time
+// into an atomic variable.
+//
+// A deadline can be quickly checked for expiration by comparing
+// its value to the clock stored in the atomic variable.
+//
+// The goroutine automatically stops once clockEnd is reached.
+// (clockEnd covers the largest deadline seen so far + some
+// extra time). This ensures that if regexp2 with timeouts
+// stops being used we will stop background work.
+type fastclock struct {
+	// current and clockEnd can be read via atomic loads.
+	// Reads and writes of other fields require mu to be held.
+	mu sync.Mutex
+
+	start    time.Time  // Time corresponding to fasttime(0)
+	current  atomicTime // Current time (approximate)
+	clockEnd atomicTime // When clock updater is supposed to stop (>= any existing deadline)
+	running  bool       // Is a clock updater running?
+}
+
+var fast fastclock
+
+// reached returns true if current time is at or past t.
+func (t fasttime) reached() bool {
+	return fast.current.read() >= t
+}
+
+// makeDeadline returns a time that is approximately time.Now().Add(d)
+func makeDeadline(d time.Duration) fasttime {
+	// Increase the deadline since the clock we are reading may be
+	// just about to tick forwards.
+	end := fast.current.read() + durationToTicks(d+clockPeriod)
+
+	// Start or extend clock if necessary.
+	if end > fast.clockEnd.read() {
+		extendClock(end)
+	}
+	return end
+}
+
+// extendClock ensures that clock is live and will run until at least end.
+func extendClock(end fasttime) {
+	fast.mu.Lock()
+	defer fast.mu.Unlock()
+
+	if fast.start.IsZero() {
+		fast.start = time.Now()
+	}
+
+	// Extend the running time to cover end as well as a bit of slop.
+	if shutdown := end + durationToTicks(time.Second); shutdown > fast.clockEnd.read() {
+		fast.clockEnd.write(shutdown)
+	}
+
+	// Start clock if necessary
+	if !fast.running {
+		fast.running = true
+		go runClock()
+	}
+}
+
+func durationToTicks(d time.Duration) fasttime {
+	// Downscale nanoseconds to approximately a millisecond so that we can avoid
+	// overflow even if the caller passes in math.MaxInt64.
+	return fasttime(d) >> 20
+}
+
+// clockPeriod is the approximate interval between updates of approximateClock.
+const clockPeriod = 100 * time.Millisecond
+
+func runClock() {
+	fast.mu.Lock()
+	defer fast.mu.Unlock()
+
+	for fast.current.read() <= fast.clockEnd.read() {
+		// Unlock while sleeping.
+		fast.mu.Unlock()
+		time.Sleep(clockPeriod)
+		fast.mu.Lock()
+
+		newTime := durationToTicks(time.Since(fast.start))
+		fast.current.write(newTime)
+	}
+	fast.running = false
+}
+
+type atomicTime struct{ v int64 } // Should change to atomic.Int64 when we can use go 1.19
+
+func (t *atomicTime) read() fasttime   { return fasttime(atomic.LoadInt64(&t.v)) }
+func (t *atomicTime) write(v fasttime) { atomic.StoreInt64(&t.v, int64(v)) }
diff --git a/fastclock_test.go b/fastclock_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bdf0d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fastclock_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package regexp2
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+func TestDeadline(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, delay := range []time.Duration{
+		clockPeriod / 10,
+		clockPeriod,
+		clockPeriod * 5,
+		clockPeriod * 10,
+	} {
+		delay := delay // Make copy for parallel sub-test.
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprint(delay), func(t *testing.T) {
+			t.Parallel()
+			start := time.Now()
+			d := makeDeadline(delay)
+			if d.reached() {
+				t.Fatalf("deadline (%v) unexpectedly expired immediately", delay)
+			}
+			time.Sleep(delay / 2)
+			if d.reached() {
+				t.Fatalf("deadline (%v) expired too soon (after %v)", delay, time.Since(start))
+			}
+			time.Sleep(delay/2 + 2*clockPeriod) // Give clock time to tick
+			if !d.reached() {
+				t.Fatalf("deadline (%v) did not expire within %v", delay, time.Since(start))
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/regexp.go b/regexp.go
index 818c766..9d41c76 100644
--- a/regexp.go
+++ b/regexp.go
@@ -24,7 +24,11 @@ var DefaultMatchTimeout = time.Duration(math.MaxInt64)
 // Regexp is the representation of a compiled regular expression.
 // A Regexp is safe for concurrent use by multiple goroutines.
 type Regexp struct {
-	//timeout when trying to find matches
+	// A match will time out if it takes (approximately) more than
+	// MatchTimeout. This is a safety check in case the match
+	// encounters catastrophic backtracking.  The default value
+	// (DefaultMatchTimeout) causes all time out checking to be
+	// suppressed.
 	MatchTimeout time.Duration
 
 	// read-only after Compile
diff --git a/regexp_performance_test.go b/regexp_performance_test.go
index 01a87d0..ab3bd8e 100644
--- a/regexp_performance_test.go
+++ b/regexp_performance_test.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package regexp2
 import (
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 )
 
 func BenchmarkLiteral(b *testing.B) {
@@ -58,6 +59,7 @@ func BenchmarkMatchClass_InRange(b *testing.B) {
 
 /*
 func BenchmarkReplaceAll(b *testing.B) {
+
 	x := "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
 	b.StopTimer()
 	re := MustCompile("[cjrw]", 0)
@@ -65,6 +67,7 @@ func BenchmarkReplaceAll(b *testing.B) {
 	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
 		re.ReplaceAllString(x, "")
 	}
+
 }
 */
 func BenchmarkAnchoredLiteralShortNonMatch(b *testing.B) {
@@ -305,3 +308,50 @@ func BenchmarkLeading(b *testing.B) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+func BenchmarkShortSearch(b *testing.B) {
+	type benchmark struct {
+		name     string
+		parallel bool // Run in parallel?
+		timeout  time.Duration
+		increase time.Duration // timeout increase per match
+	}
+	for _, mode := range []benchmark{
+		{"serial-no-timeout", false, DefaultMatchTimeout, 0},
+		{"serial-fixed-timeout", false, time.Second, 0},
+		{"serial-increasing-timeout", false, time.Second, time.Second},
+		{"parallel-no-timeout", true, DefaultMatchTimeout, 0},
+		{"parallel-fixed-timeout", true, time.Second, 0},
+		{"parallel-increasing-timeout", true, time.Second, time.Second},
+	} {
+		b.Run(mode.name, func(b *testing.B) {
+			t := makeText(100)
+			b.SetBytes(int64(len(t)))
+			matchOnce := func(r *Regexp) {
+				if m, err := r.MatchRunes(t); m {
+					b.Fatal("match!")
+				} else if err != nil {
+					b.Fatalf("Err %v", err)
+				}
+			}
+
+			if !mode.parallel {
+				r := MustCompile(easy0, 0)
+				r.MatchTimeout = mode.timeout
+				for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+					matchOnce(r)
+					r.MatchTimeout += mode.increase
+				}
+			} else {
+				b.RunParallel(func(pb *testing.PB) {
+					r := MustCompile(easy0, 0)
+					r.MatchTimeout = mode.timeout
+					for pb.Next() {
+						matchOnce(r)
+						r.MatchTimeout += mode.increase
+					}
+				})
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/regexp_test.go b/regexp_test.go
index e12a9ac..791d90f 100644
--- a/regexp_test.go
+++ b/regexp_test.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package regexp2
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
@@ -11,14 +12,43 @@ import (
 
 func TestBacktrack_CatastrophicTimeout(t *testing.T) {
 	r, err := Compile("(.+)*\\?", 0)
-	r.MatchTimeout = time.Millisecond * 1
-	t.Logf("code dump: %v", r.code.Dump())
-	m, err := r.FindStringMatch("Do you think you found the problem string!")
-	if err == nil {
-		t.Errorf("expected timeout err")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if m != nil {
-		t.Errorf("Expected no match")
+	t.Logf("code dump: %v", r.code.Dump())
+	const subject = "Do you think you found the problem string!"
+
+	const earlyAllowance = 10 * time.Millisecond
+	const lateAllowance = clockPeriod + 500*time.Millisecond // Large allowance in case machine is slow
+
+	for _, timeout := range []time.Duration{
+		-1 * time.Millisecond,
+		0 * time.Millisecond,
+		1 * time.Millisecond,
+		10 * time.Millisecond,
+		100 * time.Millisecond,
+		500 * time.Millisecond,
+		1000 * time.Millisecond,
+	} {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprint(timeout), func(t *testing.T) {
+			r.MatchTimeout = timeout
+			start := time.Now()
+			m, err := r.FindStringMatch(subject)
+			elapsed := time.Since(start)
+			if err == nil {
+				t.Errorf("expected timeout err")
+			}
+			if m != nil {
+				t.Errorf("Expected no match")
+			}
+			t.Logf("timeed out after %v", elapsed)
+			if elapsed < timeout-earlyAllowance {
+				t.Errorf("Match timed out too quickly (%v instead of expected %v)", elapsed, timeout-earlyAllowance)
+			}
+			if elapsed > timeout+lateAllowance {
+				t.Errorf("Match timed out too late (%v instead of expected %v)", elapsed, timeout+lateAllowance)
+			}
+		})
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/runner.go b/runner.go
index 4d7f9b0..494dcef 100644
--- a/runner.go
+++ b/runner.go
@@ -58,10 +58,9 @@ type runner struct {
 
 	runmatch *Match // result object
 
-	ignoreTimeout       bool
-	timeout             time.Duration // timeout in milliseconds (needed for actual)
-	timeoutChecksToSkip int
-	timeoutAt           time.Time
+	ignoreTimeout bool
+	timeout       time.Duration // timeout in milliseconds (needed for actual)
+	deadline      fasttime
 
 	operator        syntax.InstOp
 	codepos         int
@@ -1551,39 +1550,15 @@ func (r *runner) isECMABoundary(index, startpos, endpos int) bool {
 		(index < endpos && syntax.IsECMAWordChar(r.runtext[index]))
 }
 
-// this seems like a comment to justify randomly picking 1000 :-P
-// We have determined this value in a series of experiments where x86 retail
-// builds (ono-lab-optimized) were run on different pattern/input pairs. Larger values
-// of TimeoutCheckFrequency did not tend to increase performance; smaller values
-// of TimeoutCheckFrequency tended to slow down the execution.
-const timeoutCheckFrequency int = 1000
-
 func (r *runner) startTimeoutWatch() {
 	if r.ignoreTimeout {
 		return
 	}
-
-	r.timeoutChecksToSkip = timeoutCheckFrequency
-	r.timeoutAt = time.Now().Add(r.timeout)
+	r.deadline = makeDeadline(r.timeout)
 }
 
 func (r *runner) checkTimeout() error {
-	if r.ignoreTimeout {
-		return nil
-	}
-	r.timeoutChecksToSkip--
-	if r.timeoutChecksToSkip != 0 {
-		return nil
-	}
-
-	r.timeoutChecksToSkip = timeoutCheckFrequency
-	return r.doCheckTimeout()
-}
-
-func (r *runner) doCheckTimeout() error {
-	current := time.Now()
-
-	if current.Before(r.timeoutAt) {
+	if r.ignoreTimeout || !r.deadline.reached() {
 		return nil
 	}