diff --git a/sanic/websocket.py b/sanic/websocket.py
index a2c7b81d4c..4ae83c853e 100644
--- a/sanic/websocket.py
+++ b/sanic/websocket.py
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ async def websocket_handshake(self, request, subprotocols=None):
 
         # hook up the websocket protocol
         self.websocket = WebSocketCommonProtocol(
-            timeout=self.websocket_timeout,
+            close_timeout=self.websocket_timeout,
             max_size=self.websocket_max_size,
             max_queue=self.websocket_max_queue,
             read_limit=self.websocket_read_limit,
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 35d1228e58..db788803ca 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def open_local(paths, mode="r", encoding="utf8"):
     uvloop,
     ujson,
     "aiofiles>=0.3.0",
-    "websockets>=7.0,<9.0",
+    "websockets>=8.1,<9.0",
     "multidict>=4.0,<5.0",
     "httpx==0.11.1",
 ]
diff --git a/tests/test_reloader.py b/tests/test_reloader.py
index 5c6415b875..5eccb8011b 100644
--- a/tests/test_reloader.py
+++ b/tests/test_reloader.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 import os
 import secrets
 import sys
+from contextlib import suppress
 
-from subprocess import PIPE, Popen
+from subprocess import PIPE, Popen, TimeoutExpired
 from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
 from textwrap import dedent
 from threading import Timer
@@ -85,4 +86,5 @@ async def test_reloader_live(runargs, mode):
         finally:
             timeout.cancel()
             terminate(proc)
-            proc.wait(timeout=3)
+            with suppress(TimeoutExpired):
+                proc.wait(timeout=3)
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 321e3a5566..dc272c6d57 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ deps =
     gunicorn
     pytest-benchmark
     uvicorn
-    websockets>=7.0,<8.0
+    websockets>=8.1,<9.0
 commands =
     pytest {posargs:tests --cov sanic}
     - coverage combine --append