diff --git a/ibis/expr/operations/udf.py b/ibis/expr/operations/udf.py
index 461ffe318ac6..dcca4f603243 100644
--- a/ibis/expr/operations/udf.py
+++ b/ibis/expr/operations/udf.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 from ibis import util
 from ibis.common.annotations import Argument
 from ibis.common.collections import FrozenDict
+from ibis.expr.deferred import deferrable
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     import ibis.expr.types as ir
@@ -50,11 +51,13 @@ def _wrap(
     **kwargs: Any,
 ) -> Callable:
     """Wrap a function `fn` with `wrapper`, allowing zero arguments when used as part of a decorator."""
-    if fn is None:
-        return lambda fn: functools.update_wrapper(
-            wrapper(input_type, fn, *args, **kwargs), fn
+
+    def wrap(fn):
+        return functools.update_wrapper(
+            deferrable(wrapper(input_type, fn, *args, **kwargs)), fn
         )
-    return functools.update_wrapper(wrapper(input_type, fn, *args, **kwargs), fn)
+
+    return wrap(fn) if fn is not None else wrap
 
 
 S = TypeVar("S", bound=ops.Value)
diff --git a/ibis/tests/expr/test_udf.py b/ibis/tests/expr/test_udf.py
index e59be3f9337c..d81dd995eb01 100644
--- a/ibis/tests/expr/test_udf.py
+++ b/ibis/tests/expr/test_udf.py
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@
 import ibis.expr.datatypes as dt
 import ibis.expr.operations as ops
 import ibis.expr.types as ir
+from ibis import _
 from ibis.common.annotations import ValidationError
+from ibis.expr.deferred import Deferred
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
@@ -79,3 +81,24 @@ def test_vectorized_udf_operations(table, klass, output_type):
             input_type=[dt.int8(), dt.string(), dt.boolean()],
             return_type=table,
         )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "dec",
+    [
+        pytest.param(ibis.udf.scalar.builtin, id="scalar-builtin"),
+        pytest.param(ibis.udf.scalar.pandas, id="scalar-pandas"),
+        pytest.param(ibis.udf.scalar.pyarrow, id="scalar-pyarrow"),
+        pytest.param(ibis.udf.scalar.python, id="scalar-python"),
+        pytest.param(ibis.udf.agg.builtin, id="agg-builtin"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_udf_deferred(dec, table):
+    @dec
+    def myfunc(x: int) -> int:
+        ...
+
+    expr = myfunc(_.a)
+    assert isinstance(expr, Deferred)
+    assert repr(expr) == "myfunc(_.a)"
+    assert expr.resolve(table).equals(myfunc(table.a))