diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index eaebcb398bee7..c619d63364620 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ Julia v1.7 Release Notes
 New language features
 ---------------------
 * `count` and `findall` now accept an `AbstractChar` argument to search for a character in a string ([#38675]).
+* `escape_string` can now receive a collection of characters in the keyword
+  `keep` that are to be kept as they are. ([#38597])
 
 Language changes
 ----------------
diff --git a/base/strings/io.jl b/base/strings/io.jl
index dda567414f073..1ce005bcb4d2a 100644
--- a/base/strings/io.jl
+++ b/base/strings/io.jl
@@ -310,8 +310,8 @@ escape_nul(c::Union{Nothing, AbstractChar}) =
     (c !== nothing && '0' <= c <= '7') ? "\\x00" : "\\0"
 
 """
-    escape_string(str::AbstractString[, esc])::AbstractString
-    escape_string(io, str::AbstractString[, esc::])::Nothing
+    escape_string(str::AbstractString[, esc]; keep = ())::AbstractString
+    escape_string(io, str::AbstractString[, esc]; keep = ())::Nothing
 
 General escaping of traditional C and Unicode escape sequences. The first form returns the
 escaped string, the second prints the result to `io`.
@@ -323,11 +323,20 @@ unambiguous), unicode code point (`"\\u"` prefix) or hex (`"\\x"` prefix).
 The optional `esc` argument specifies any additional characters that should also be
 escaped by a prepending backslash (`\"` is also escaped by default in the first form).
 
+The argument `keep` specifies a collection of characters which are to be kept as
+they are. Notice that `esc` has precedence here.
+
+!!! compat "Julia 1.7"
+    The `keep` argument is available as of Julia 1.7.
+
 # Examples
 ```jldoctest
 julia> escape_string("aaa\\nbbb")
 "aaa\\\\nbbb"
 
+julia> escape_string("aaa\\nbbb"; keep = '\\n')
+"aaa\\nbbb"
+
 julia> escape_string("\\xfe\\xff") # invalid utf-8
 "\\\\xfe\\\\xff"
 
@@ -341,11 +350,13 @@ julia> escape_string(string('\\u2135','\\0','0')) # \\0 would be ambiguous
 ## See also
 [`unescape_string`](@ref) for the reverse operation.
 """
-function escape_string(io::IO, s::AbstractString, esc="")
+function escape_string(io::IO, s::AbstractString, esc=""; keep = ())
     a = Iterators.Stateful(s)
     for c::AbstractChar in a
         if c in esc
             print(io, '\\', c)
+        elseif c in keep
+            print(io, c)
         elseif isascii(c)
             c == '\0'          ? print(io, escape_nul(peek(a)::Union{AbstractChar,Nothing})) :
             c == '\e'          ? print(io, "\\e") :
@@ -368,7 +379,8 @@ function escape_string(io::IO, s::AbstractString, esc="")
     end
 end
 
-escape_string(s::AbstractString, esc=('\"',)) = sprint(escape_string, s, esc, sizehint=lastindex(s))
+escape_string(s::AbstractString, esc=('\"',); keep = ()) =
+    sprint((io)->escape_string(io, s, esc; keep = keep), sizehint=lastindex(s))
 
 function print_quoted(io, s::AbstractString)
     print(io, '"')
diff --git a/test/strings/io.jl b/test/strings/io.jl
index 9fd36d565408e..210503bb65832 100644
--- a/test/strings/io.jl
+++ b/test/strings/io.jl
@@ -64,6 +64,13 @@
     @test typeof(escape_string("test", "t")) == String
     @test escape_string("test", "t") == "\\tes\\t"
 
+    @test escape_string("\\cdot") == "\\\\cdot"
+    @test escape_string("\\cdot"; keep = '\\') == "\\cdot"
+    @test escape_string("\\cdot", '\\'; keep = '\\') == "\\\\cdot"
+    @test escape_string("\\cdot\n"; keep = "\\\n") == "\\cdot\n"
+    @test escape_string("\\cdot\n", '\n'; keep = "\\\n") == "\\cdot\\\n"
+    @test escape_string("\\cdot\n", "\\\n"; keep = "\\\n") == "\\\\cdot\\\n"
+
     for i = 1:size(cx,1)
         cp, ch, st = cx[i,:]
         @test cp == convert(UInt32, ch)