diff --git a/tests/FILEFORMAT.md b/tests/FILEFORMAT.md
index 82e5f6c27c..e7245c2b75 100644
--- a/tests/FILEFORMAT.md
+++ b/tests/FILEFORMAT.md
@@ -332,6 +332,7 @@ about to issue.
 
 - `auth_required` if this is set and a POST/PUT is made without auth, the
   server will NOT wait for the full request body to get sent
+- `delay: [msecs]` - delay this amount after connection
 - `idle` - do nothing after receiving the request, just "sit idle"
 - `stream` - continuously send data to the client, never-ending
 - `writedelay: [msecs]` delay this amount between reply packets
diff --git a/tests/server/sws.c b/tests/server/sws.c
index bf2c6f94ec..c23534210a 100644
--- a/tests/server/sws.c
+++ b/tests/server/sws.c
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ struct httprequest {
   size_t cl;      /* Content-Length of the incoming request */
   bool digest;    /* Authorization digest header found */
   bool ntlm;      /* Authorization ntlm header found */
+  int delay;      /* if non-zero, delay this number of msec after connect */
   int writedelay; /* if non-zero, delay this number of milliseconds between
                      writes in the response */
   int skip;       /* if non-zero, the server is instructed to not read this
@@ -328,6 +329,10 @@ static int parse_servercmd(struct httprequest *req)
         logmsg("instructed to reject Expect: 100-continue");
         req->noexpect = TRUE;
       }
+      else if(1 == sscanf(cmd, "delay: %d", &num)) {
+        logmsg("instructed to delay %d msecs after connect", num);
+        req->delay = num;
+      }
       else if(1 == sscanf(cmd, "writedelay: %d", &num)) {
         logmsg("instructed to delay %d msecs between packets", num);
         req->writedelay = num;
@@ -854,6 +859,7 @@ static void init_httprequest(struct httprequest *req)
   req->skip = 0;
   req->skipall = FALSE;
   req->noexpect = FALSE;
+  req->delay = 0;
   req->writedelay = 0;
   req->rcmd = RCMD_NORMALREQ;
   req->prot_version = 0;
@@ -2333,6 +2339,8 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
         logmsg("accept_connection %d returned %d", sock, msgsock);
         if(CURL_SOCKET_BAD == msgsock)
           goto sws_cleanup;
+        if(req->delay)
+          wait_ms(req->delay);
       } while(msgsock > 0);
       active--;
     }