diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 66e06287a9..58faf9ef28 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # ggplot2 (development version)
 
+
+* Fix bug in `labeller()` where parsing was turned off if `.multiline = FALSE`
+  (@thomasp85, #4084)
+  
 * Fix a bug in `qplot()` when supplying `c(NA, NA)` as axis limits 
   (@thomasp85, #4027)
 
diff --git a/R/labeller.r b/R/labeller.r
index 0d47f4eb0c..099a2d961d 100644
--- a/R/labeller.r
+++ b/R/labeller.r
@@ -88,8 +88,13 @@
 NULL
 
 collapse_labels_lines <- function(labels) {
+  is_exp <- vapply(labels, function(l) length(l) > 0 && is.expression(l[[1]]), logical(1))
   out <- do.call("Map", c(list(paste, sep = ", "), labels))
-  list(unname(unlist(out)))
+  label <- list(unname(unlist(out)))
+  if (all(is_exp)) {
+    label <- lapply(label, function(l) list(parse(text = paste0("list(", l, ")"))))
+  }
+  label
 }
 
 #' @rdname labellers