diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py b/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py
index 569ec613cbcb9..2cd6c8783d387 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py
@@ -11,9 +11,12 @@
     datetime,
     timedelta,
 )
+import errno
 import functools
+import os
 import random
 import re
+import signal
 from typing import Iterator
 import warnings
 
@@ -2459,6 +2462,60 @@ def test_constructor_list_str_na(self, string_dtype):
         expected = DataFrame({"A": ["1.0", "2.0", None]}, dtype=object)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
+    def test_constructor_large_size_frame(self):
+        # GH#50708
+        # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2281850/timeout-function-
+        # if-it-takes-too-long-to-finish/2282656#2282656
+        class TimeoutError(Exception):
+            pass
+
+        def timeout(seconds=10, error_message=os.strerror(errno.ETIME)):
+            def decorator(func):
+                def _handle_timeout(signum, frame):
+                    raise TimeoutError(error_message)
+
+                @functools.wraps(func)
+                def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
+                    signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, _handle_timeout)
+                    signal.alarm(seconds)
+                    try:
+                        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
+                    finally:
+                        signal.alarm(0)
+                    return result
+
+                return wrapper
+
+            return decorator
+
+        class LargeFrame(DataFrame):
+            def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+                super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+                for col in self.columns:
+                    if self.dtypes[col] == "O":
+                        self[col] = pd.to_numeric(self[col], errors="ignore")
+
+            @property
+            def _constructor(self):
+                return type(self)
+
+        def get_frame(N):
+            return LargeFrame(
+                data=np.vstack(
+                    [
+                        np.where(np.random.rand(N) > 0.36, np.random.rand(N), np.nan)
+                        for _ in range(2)
+                    ]
+                ).T
+            )
+
+        # check that dropna() doesn't fall into an infinite loop
+        @timeout(5)
+        def time_restricted_dropna(n):
+            get_frame(n).dropna()
+
+        time_restricted_dropna(1000000)
+
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("copy", [False, True])
     def test_dict_nocopy(
         self,