Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also lay, pack up in lavender) to pawn, thus laid, in pawn.

1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier D3: Hee is readye to lend the loser money upon rings [...] or any other good pawne, but the poore gentleman paies so deere for the lavender it is layd up in.
1605		Chapman & Jonson Eastward Ho! V i: Good faith, rather than thou shouldst pawn a rag more, I’d lay my Ladyship in lavender – if I knew where.
1630		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Travels’ in Works (1869) III 77: As if her selfe like a desperate pawne had layne seauen yeares in Lauender on sweeting in long Lane.
1675		Head Art of Wheedling 323: These men, who have laid up their Estates in Lavender, that they may the more freely follow their Recreation.
1690		Pagan Prince 35: For a Prince to have [...] the third part of a mans length laid up in Lavender before he has half done with them, I must needs confess, I do not very well approve.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Layd-up-in Lavender, when any Cloaths or other Moveables are pawn’d or dipt for present Money.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Laid up in lavender, pawned.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 58: ‘To be laid up in lavender,’ in pawn.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 16 Aug. 10/2: At frequent intervals since then your coat has disappeared suddenly ? Yes. And reappeared again in the same mysterious manner. May I ask where it went ? It was laid in lavender. Where? At an old relative's.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Lavender, to be out of the way, ‘laid in lavender,’ pawned [ibid.] 43: Laid, pawned.
c.1900		[perf. Vesta Tilley] S.U.N.D.A.Y 🎵 Sunday / When all of the boys wear clothes /They've packed up in lavender ever since Monday.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/1: laid – pawned.

2. to put out of harm’s way; to hide, e.g. from the police.

1660		‘Megg. Spencer’ A Strange and True Conference 4: He hath layd thee safe in Lavender.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 373: Having layen in Lavender about a fortnight in this house, not only to sweeten us, but that the rumour of our escape, and search for us might be over, we got our selves change of habits.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: You have had a decent swing of it the last twelvemonth, while your pals have been laid up in lavender.
1855		Western Times 30 June 4/6: Statesmen when they enter office, leave their religious principles [and] send them back by the coachman, perhaps to lay them up in lavender till they are driven into the cold shade of opposition again.
1866		York Herald 7 July 8/5: Who is to bowl them [i.e., racehorses] both out, and who continues to lay up in lavender.
1870		Dundee Courier 1 Sept. 3/6: Those ‘war correspondents’ who [...] lay themselves up in the lavender of neutral territory.
1887		Worcester Jrnl 29 Jan. 3/6: The last time they met they were twitted with having met to lay up in lavender. Ald. Willis [...] had, however, shown by his presence that he was not yet laid up in lavender.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 64: One of the most delicate metaphors in crooks’ slang is the term used for a burglar who is hiding from the police [...] his pals speak of him as being ‘laid up in lavender’.
1938		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/1: ‘Razor Jack’ no longer sallied forth, his trusty Bengall by his side. The devoted blade was laid — not too far — away, in lavender.

3. to imprison.

1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 276: The poor gentleman is laid up there [i.e. prison] in lavender, because [...] his own kind heart led him to scald his fingers with another man’s broth.
1826		Vulgarities of Speech Corrected.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: You have had a decent swing of it the last twelvemonth, while your pals have been laid up in lavender.
1877		London Standard 22 Feb. 3/5: Every male there was a thief [...] who had been ‘laid up in levender’ at some period of his life.
1892		London Standard 15 Mar. 7/7: My last a sound; to utter it / Without a proper grant, / Will lay you up in lavender / (To use a vulgar cant.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 142: lay in lavender To serve a jail sentence.

4. (also lie in lavender) to die.

a.1673		R. Brathwait Strappado 154: Upon a Poet’s Palfrey lying in lavender, for the discharge of his Provender .
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 8: I might as well bolt myself, now my best friend’s laid up in lavender!