my @patterns = qw/ foo bar baz /;

     ## if you need to return the pattern itself, return '$_' instead
     my $match_n_return = join( "\n",
              map{  "return \$1 if \$_[0] =~ /$_/o;" } @patterns
     );
     my $sub =  eval qq|sub  { $match_n_return return undef }|;
     if( $@ ) {
           ## some syntax error in the eval string
           die $@
      }

      my $matched = $sub->( "string you want to match" );