How to increase the mocha timeout per suite in a typescript test

An alternative to basarat's answer, along similar lines that uses different syntax (that is effectively confusing in a different way!):

describe('When we take a look at the stack overflow home page', () => {
    it('does not have crazy cat text in it!', () => {
        expect('#h-top-questions').dom.to.not.contain.text("Just cats here!");
    }).timeout(5000);
});

Use function intead of an arrow and then just call this.timeout(5000); e.g.

describe('When we take a look at the stack overflow home page', () => {
    return it('It does not have crazy cat text in it!', function() {
      this.timeout(5000);
      return this.expect('#h-top-questions').dom.to.not.contain.text("Just cats here!");
    });
  });

This is because ()=> captures the surrounding this. More http://basarat.gitbooks.io/typescript/content/docs/arrow-functions.html