diff --git a/Lib/subprocess.py b/Lib/subprocess.py
index 1948ac8a3a1dfe..749c728db729ae 100644
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py
@@ -43,8 +43,10 @@
 import builtins
 import errno
 import io
+import locale
 import os
 import time
+import signal
 import sys
 import threading
 import warnings
@@ -142,8 +144,6 @@ def __init__(self, returncode, cmd, output=None, stderr=None):
 
     def __str__(self):
         if self.returncode and self.returncode < 0:
-            # Lazy import to improve module import time
-            import signal
             try:
                 return "Command '%s' died with %r." % (
                         self.cmd, signal.Signals(-self.returncode))
@@ -381,8 +381,6 @@ def _text_encoding():
     if sys.flags.utf8_mode:
         return "utf-8"
     else:
-        # Lazy import to improve module import time
-        import locale
         return locale.getencoding()
 
 
@@ -1665,9 +1663,6 @@ def send_signal(self, sig):
             # Don't signal a process that we know has already died.
             if self.returncode is not None:
                 return
-
-            # Lazy import to improve module import time
-            import signal
             if sig == signal.SIGTERM:
                 self.terminate()
             elif sig == signal.CTRL_C_EVENT:
@@ -1769,9 +1764,6 @@ def _posix_spawn(self, args, executable, env, restore_signals, close_fds,
             """Execute program using os.posix_spawn()."""
             kwargs = {}
             if restore_signals:
-                # Lazy import to improve module import time
-                import signal
-
                 # See _Py_RestoreSignals() in Python/pylifecycle.c
                 sigset = []
                 for signame in ('SIGPIPE', 'SIGXFZ', 'SIGXFSZ'):
@@ -2221,13 +2213,9 @@ def send_signal(self, sig):
         def terminate(self):
             """Terminate the process with SIGTERM
             """
-            # Lazy import to improve module import time
-            import signal
             self.send_signal(signal.SIGTERM)
 
         def kill(self):
             """Kill the process with SIGKILL
             """
-            # Lazy import to improve module import time
-            import signal
             self.send_signal(signal.SIGKILL)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-02-16-10-12-27.gh-issue-118761.TNw5ZC.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-02-16-10-12-27.gh-issue-118761.TNw5ZC.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..198fd0c28f4f3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-02-16-10-12-27.gh-issue-118761.TNw5ZC.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Reverts a change in the previous release attempting to make some stdlib
+imports used within the :mod:`subprocess` module lazy as this was causing
+errors during ``__del__`` finalizers calling methods such as ``terminate``, or
+``kill``, or ``send_signal``.