diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index a8904b31d..3b8495e72 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 Release 1.0.8 (Sep 23, 2011)
 ============================
 
+* Fix the ``abbr`` role when the abbreviation has newlines in it.
+
 * #727: Fix the links to search results with custom object types.
 
 * #648: Fix line numbers reported in warnings about undefined
diff --git a/sphinx/roles.py b/sphinx/roles.py
index e3d412997..0ef3624ef 100644
--- a/sphinx/roles.py
+++ b/sphinx/roles.py
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ def emph_literal_role(typ, rawtext, text, lineno, inliner,
     return [retnode], []
 
 
-_abbr_re = re.compile('\((.*)\)$')
+_abbr_re = re.compile('\((.*)\)$', re.S)
 
 def abbr_role(typ, rawtext, text, lineno, inliner, options={}, content=[]):
     text = utils.unescape(text)