diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
index 8ee5088..6879db5 100644
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 - Highlight `&>` `>&|` `>&!` `&>|` and `&>!` as redirection.
   [#942]
 
+- Fixed: aliases were restored via a plain (non-`builtin`) call to `alias`,
+  so if the user had overridden/aliased `alias` itself, restoration could
+  fail silently.
+  [#972]
+
 
 # Changes in 0.8.0
 
diff --git a/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh b/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
index 4295c93..0c9df9b 100644
--- a/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
+++ b/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
@@ -579,9 +579,16 @@ if (( $+X_ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_DIRS_BLACKLIST )); then
   unset X_ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_DIRS_BLACKLIST
 fi
 
-# Restore the aliases we unned
-eval "$zsh_highlight__aliases"
-builtin unset zsh_highlight__aliases
+# Restore the aliases that were unaliased above (via 'builtin unalias').
+#
+# We use 'builtin' here (and not just when capturing them above) in case the
+# 'alias' command has itself been aliased or overridden by the user; see
+# issue #972.
+typeset zsh_highlight__alias
+for zsh_highlight__alias in ${(f)zsh_highlight__aliases}; do
+  eval "builtin $zsh_highlight__alias"
+done
+builtin unset zsh_highlight__aliases zsh_highlight__alias
 
 # Set $?.
 true