diff --git a/base/docs/Docs.jl b/base/docs/Docs.jl
index f4db13f828ed6..61b5786298475 100644
--- a/base/docs/Docs.jl
+++ b/base/docs/Docs.jl
@@ -73,9 +73,9 @@ const modules = Module[]
 const META    = gensym(:meta)
 const METAType = IdDict{Any,Any}
 
-function meta(m::Module)
+function meta(m::Module; autoinit::Bool=true)
     if !isdefined(m, META) || getfield(m, META) === nothing
-        initmeta(m)
+        autoinit ? initmeta(m) : return nothing
     end
     return getfield(m, META)::METAType
 end
@@ -161,7 +161,8 @@ end
 function docstr(binding::Binding, typesig = Union{})
     @nospecialize typesig
     for m in modules
-        dict = meta(m)
+        dict = meta(m; autoinit=false)
+        isnothing(dict) && continue
         if haskey(dict, binding)
             docs = dict[binding].docs
             if haskey(docs, typesig)
diff --git a/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl b/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl
index 24bbfc2e6282d..ea663fa16007f 100644
--- a/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl
+++ b/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl
@@ -164,7 +164,8 @@ function doc(binding::Binding, sig::Type = Union{})
     results, groups = DocStr[], MultiDoc[]
     # Lookup `binding` and `sig` for matches in all modules of the docsystem.
     for mod in modules
-        dict = meta(mod)
+        dict = meta(mod; autoinit=false)
+        isnothing(dict) && continue
         if haskey(dict, binding)
             multidoc = dict[binding]
             push!(groups, multidoc)
@@ -565,7 +566,8 @@ Return documentation for a particular `field` of a type if it exists.
 """
 function fielddoc(binding::Binding, field::Symbol)
     for mod in modules
-        dict = meta(mod)
+        dict = meta(mod; autoinit=false)
+        isnothing(dict) && continue
         if haskey(dict, binding)
             multidoc = dict[binding]
             if haskey(multidoc.docs, Union{})
@@ -834,7 +836,9 @@ function apropos(io::IO, needle::Regex)
     for mod in modules
         # Module doc might be in README.md instead of the META dict
         docsearch(doc(mod), needle) && println(io, mod)
-        for (k, v) in meta(mod)
+        dict = meta(mod; autoinit=false)
+        isnothing(dict) && continue
+        for (k, v) in dict
             docsearch(v, needle) && println(io, k)
         end
     end