Apply Emacs-Lisp `font-lock' rules to a string

[Alexander Shukaev]

Assume I have a string somewhere in Emacs-Lisp program.  I want this
string to be propertized in such a way that when I display this string
somewhere, it should have identical highlighting as if it would have
been typed in Emacs-Lisp major mode (with `font-lock').

To expand on the problem, I have a string which contains regular
expression, which I display in the echo area.  It would be nice to
apply standard highlighting to it.  Is there any way to achieve this
smoothly (preferably with one or a few calls to built-in functions)?
Thanks.

Regards,
Alexander