Green’s Dictionary of Slang

notice to quit n.

[Egan (1821): ‘A cant phrase, applied to any individual who appears to be in a state fast approaching towards dissolution.’]

intimations of one’s imminent death.

Show quotations
[UK]Egan Life in London (1869) 123: Our hero had not received a positive notice to quit.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: notice to quit A cant phrase. When a person is in danger of dying from bad health, it is said, he has received ‘a notice to quit.’.