diff -r a5bd41cae6df Lib/test/test_epoll.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_epoll.py	Thu Jan 16 18:58:01 2014 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_epoll.py	Mon Jan 20 11:23:36 2014 +0100
@@ -255,6 +255,17 @@ class TestEPoll(unittest.TestCase):
         self.addCleanup(epoll.close)
         self.assertEqual(os.get_inheritable(epoll.fileno()), False)
 
+    def test_timeout_rounding(self):
+        # epoll_wait() has a resolution of 1 millisecond, check if the timeout
+        # is correctly rounded to the upper bound
+        epoll = select.epoll()
+        self.addCleanup(epoll.close)
+        for timeout in (1e-2, 1e-3, 1e-4):
+            t0 = time.perf_counter()
+            epoll.poll(timeout)
+            dt = time.perf_counter() - t0
+            self.assertGreaterEqual(dt, timeout)
+
 
 def test_main():
     support.run_unittest(TestEPoll)
diff -r a5bd41cae6df Modules/selectmodule.c
--- a/Modules/selectmodule.c	Thu Jan 16 18:58:01 2014 +0100
+++ b/Modules/selectmodule.c	Mon Jan 20 11:23:36 2014 +0100
@@ -1458,7 +1458,9 @@ pyepoll_poll(pyEpoll_Object *self, PyObj
         return NULL;
     }
     else {
-        timeout = (int)(dtimeout * 1000.0);
+        /* epoll_wait() has a resolution of 1 millisecond, round to the upper
+           bound to wait *at least* dtimeout seconds. */
+        timeout = (int)ceil(dtimeout * 1000.0);
     }
 
     if (maxevents == -1) {