diff --git a/mesonbuild/dependencies/base.py b/mesonbuild/dependencies/base.py
index 50f4179e6..8b452cdb3 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/dependencies/base.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/dependencies/base.py
@@ -1411,7 +1411,9 @@ class CMakeDependency(ExternalDependency):
                                       'Valid targets are:\n{}'.format(name, list(self.traceparser.targets.keys())))
 
         # Set dependencies with CMake targets
-        reg_is_lib = re.compile(r'^(-l[a-zA-Z0-9_]+|-pthread)$')
+        # recognise arguments we should pass directly to the linker
+        reg_is_lib = re.compile(r'^(-l[a-zA-Z0-9_]+|-pthread|-delayload:[a-zA-Z0-9_\.]+|[a-zA-Z0-9_]+\.lib)$')
+        reg_is_maybe_bare_lib = re.compile(r'^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$')
         processed_targets = []
         incDirs = []
         compileDefinitions = []
@@ -1479,8 +1481,20 @@ class CMakeDependency(ExternalDependency):
                 for j in otherDeps:
                     if j in self.traceparser.targets:
                         targets += [j]
-                    elif reg_is_lib.match(j) or os.path.exists(j):
+                    elif reg_is_lib.match(j):
                         libraries += [j]
+                    elif os.path.isabs(j) and os.path.exists(j):
+                        libraries += [j]
+                    elif mesonlib.is_windows() and reg_is_maybe_bare_lib.match(j):
+                        # On Windows, CMake library dependencies can be passed as bare library names,
+                        # e.g. 'version' should translate into 'version.lib'. CMake brute-forces a
+                        # combination of prefix/suffix combinations to find the right library, however
+                        # as we do not have a compiler environment available to us, we cannot do the
+                        # same, but must assume any bare argument passed which is not also a CMake
+                        # target must be a system library we should try to link against
+                        libraries += ["{}.lib".format(j)]
+                    else:
+                        mlog.warning('CMake: Dependency', mlog.bold(j), 'for', mlog.bold(name), 'target', mlog.bold(self._original_module_name(curr)), 'was not found')
 
                 processed_targets += [curr]