diff --git a/src/os/signal/signal_test.go b/src/os/signal/signal_test.go
index cea68742d26..649854b746c 100644
--- a/src/os/signal/signal_test.go
+++ b/src/os/signal/signal_test.go
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ import (
 // The current value is set based on flakes observed in the Go builders.
 var settleTime = 100 * time.Millisecond
 
+// fatalWaitingTime is an absurdly long time to wait for signals to be
+// delivered but, using it, we (hopefully) eliminate test flakes on the
+// build servers. See #46736 for discussion.
+var fatalWaitingTime = 30 * time.Second
+
 func init() {
 	if testenv.Builder() == "solaris-amd64-oraclerel" {
 		// The solaris-amd64-oraclerel builder has been observed to time out in
@@ -84,7 +89,7 @@ func waitSig1(t *testing.T, c <-chan os.Signal, sig os.Signal, all bool) {
 	// General user code should filter out all unexpected signals instead of just
 	// SIGURG, but since os/signal is tightly coupled to the runtime it seems
 	// appropriate to be stricter here.
-	for time.Since(start) < settleTime {
+	for time.Since(start) < fatalWaitingTime {
 		select {
 		case s := <-c:
 			if s == sig {
@@ -97,7 +102,7 @@ func waitSig1(t *testing.T, c <-chan os.Signal, sig os.Signal, all bool) {
 			timer.Reset(settleTime / 10)
 		}
 	}
-	t.Fatalf("timeout after %v waiting for %v", settleTime, sig)
+	t.Fatalf("timeout after %v waiting for %v", fatalWaitingTime, sig)
 }
 
 // quiesce waits until we can be reasonably confident that all pending signals