diff --git a/src/blocking/client.rs b/src/blocking/client.rs
index acc3798..259cc6a 100644
--- a/src/blocking/client.rs
+++ b/src/blocking/client.rs
@@ -670,6 +670,8 @@ impl ClientHandle {
         let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
         let (req, body) = req.into_async();
         let url = req.url().clone();
+        let timeout = req.timeout().copied().or(self.timeout.0);
+
         self.inner
             .tx
             .as_ref()
@@ -683,12 +685,12 @@ impl ClientHandle {
                     body.send().await?;
                     rx.await.map_err(|_canceled| event_loop_panicked())
                 };
-                wait::timeout(f, self.timeout.0)
+                wait::timeout(f, timeout)
             } else {
                 let f = async move {
                     rx.await.map_err(|_canceled| event_loop_panicked())
                 };
-                wait::timeout(f, self.timeout.0)
+                wait::timeout(f, timeout)
             };
 
         match result {
diff --git a/src/blocking/request.rs b/src/blocking/request.rs
index 76e08da..96c4ac1 100644
--- a/src/blocking/request.rs
+++ b/src/blocking/request.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 use std::fmt;
 use std::convert::TryFrom;
+use std::time::Duration;
 
 use base64::encode;
 use serde::Serialize;
@@ -84,6 +85,18 @@ impl Request {
         &mut self.body
     }
 
+    /// Get the timeout.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn timeout(&self) -> Option<&Duration> {
+        self.inner.timeout()
+    }
+
+    /// Get a mutable reference to the timeout.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn timeout_mut(&mut self) -> &mut Option<Duration> {
+        self.inner.timeout_mut()
+    }
+
     /// Attempts to clone the `Request`.
     ///
     /// None is returned if a body is which can not be cloned. This can be because the body is a
@@ -300,6 +313,18 @@ impl RequestBuilder {
         self
     }
 
+    /// Enables a request timeout.
+    ///
+    /// The timeout is applied from the when the request starts connecting
+    /// until the response body has finished. It affects only this request
+    /// and overrides the timeout configured using `ClientBuilder::timeout()`.
+    pub fn timeout(mut self, timeout: Duration) -> RequestBuilder {
+        if let Ok(ref mut req) = self.request {
+            *req.timeout_mut() = Some(timeout);
+        }
+        self
+    }
+
     /// Modify the query string of the URL.
     ///
     /// Modifies the URL of this request, adding the parameters provided.
diff --git a/tests/timeouts.rs b/tests/timeouts.rs
index 10663d4..7c1e158 100644
--- a/tests/timeouts.rs
+++ b/tests/timeouts.rs
@@ -117,6 +117,34 @@ fn timeout_closes_connection() {
     assert_eq!(err.url().map(|u| u.as_str()), Some(url.as_str()));
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "blocking")]
+#[test]
+fn timeout_blocking_request() {
+    let _ = env_logger::try_init();
+
+    // Make Client drop *after* the Server, so the background doesn't
+    // close too early.
+    let client = reqwest::blocking::Client::builder().build().unwrap();
+
+    let server = server::http(move |_req| {
+        async {
+            // delay returning the response
+            tokio::time::delay_for(Duration::from_secs(2)).await;
+            http::Response::default()
+        }
+    });
+
+    let url = format!("http://{}/closes", server.addr());
+    let err = client
+        .get(&url)
+        .timeout(Duration::from_millis(500))
+        .send()
+        .unwrap_err();
+
+    assert!(err.is_timeout());
+    assert_eq!(err.url().map(|u| u.as_str()), Some(url.as_str()));
+}
+
 #[cfg(feature = "blocking")]
 #[test]
 fn write_timeout_large_body() {