diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
--- meson.build
+++ meson.build
@@ -165,9 +165,9 @@
   endif
   xinput_dep = dependency('xi')
   x11_deps += xinput_dep
 
-  xres_dep = dependency('xres', required: false)
+  xres_dep = dependency('xres', required: get_option('xres'))
   at_spi_conf.set('HAVE_XRES', xres_dep.found())
 endif
 
 # Alignments
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
--- meson_options.txt
+++ meson_options.txt
@@ -39,8 +39,12 @@
 option('x11',
        description: 'Enable X11 support',
        type: 'feature',
        value: 'auto')
+option('xres',
+       description: 'Build with Xres',
+       type: 'feature',
+       value: 'auto')
 option('atk_only',
        description: 'Build only the ATK stub library without atspi or at-spi2-atk (UNSUPPORTED)',
        type: 'boolean',
        value: false)