diff --git a/src/uu/timeout/src/timeout.rs b/src/uu/timeout/src/timeout.rs
index f02f0a0a9..3da0bcd2a 100644
--- a/src/uu/timeout/src/timeout.rs
+++ b/src/uu/timeout/src/timeout.rs
@@ -282,7 +282,13 @@ fn timeout(
             report_if_verbose(signal, &cmd[0], verbose);
             process.send_signal(signal)?;
             match kill_after {
-                None => Err(ExitStatus::CommandTimedOut.into()),
+                None => {
+                    if preserve_status {
+                        Err(ExitStatus::SignalSent(signal).into())
+                    } else {
+                        Err(ExitStatus::CommandTimedOut.into())
+                    }
+                }
                 Some(kill_after) => {
                     match wait_or_kill_process(
                         process,
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_timeout.rs b/tests/by-util/test_timeout.rs
index 5db91a44d..b9c8a59ed 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_timeout.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_timeout.rs
@@ -53,3 +53,14 @@ fn test_command_empty_args() {
         .fails()
         .stderr_contains("timeout: empty string");
 }
+
+#[test]
+fn test_preserve_status() {
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&["--preserve-status", ".1", "sleep", "10"])
+        .fails()
+        // 128 + SIGTERM = 128 + 15
+        .code_is(128 + 15)
+        .no_stderr()
+        .no_stdout();
+}