diff --git a/src/LyXAction.cpp b/src/LyXAction.cpp
index 3cccc3787e..bb3bf3e340 100644
--- a/src/LyXAction.cpp
+++ b/src/LyXAction.cpp
@@ -3262,6 +3262,7 @@ void LyXAction::init()
 /*!
  * \var lyx::FuncCode lyx::LFUN_REPEAT
  * \li Action: Repeat the given command.
+ * \li Notion: fails when the repeat count is greater than 10000.
  * \li Syntax: repeat <COUNT> <LFUN-COMMAND>
  * \li Origin: Andre, 27 Oct 2003
  * \endvar
diff --git a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp
index c27f4c87e3..3a0c6013b1 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp
@@ -1858,8 +1858,15 @@ void GuiApplication::dispatch(FuncRequest const & cmd, DispatchResult & dr)
 		string countstr;
 		string rest = split(argument, countstr, ' ');
 		int const count = convert<int>(countstr);
-		for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i)
-			dispatch(lyxaction.lookupFunc(rest));
+		// an arbitrary number to limit number of iterations
+		int const max_iter = 10000;
+		if (count > max_iter) {
+			dr.setMessage(bformat(_("Cannot iterate more than %1$d times"), max_iter));
+			dr.setError(true);
+		} else {
+			for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i)
+				dispatch(lyxaction.lookupFunc(rest));
+		}
 		break;
 	}