Grim Reaper

American  

noun

1. the personification of death as a man or cloaked skeleton holding a scythe.

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Grim Reaper Cultural  

1. A figure commonly used to represent death. The Grim Reaper is a skeleton or solemn-looking man carrying a scythe, who cuts off people's lives as though he were harvesting grain.

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Usage

What is the Grim Reaper? The Grim Reaper is a fictional skeleton wearing a black robe and wielding a scythe, generally portrayed as the embodiment of death.How is term pronounced?[ grim ree-per ]

Etymology

Origin of Grim Reaper

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

And I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral—Daddy thought it was bad luck to have a child so close to the Grim Reaper.

From Literature

One thing to be said in favor of the Grim Reaper: His taste in literature is pretty sound.

From The Wall Street Journal

If the woman at Cape Fear was actually the Grim Reaper, then I need to prepare for my time of death to be moved up approximately thirty years.

From Literature

But Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate testimony on Thursday let everyone know that Santa isn’t coming — it’s the Grim Reaper, urging us to bring out the dead.

From Salon

Likewise, I never heard from dozens of other men whose profiles appealed to me online, but either they proved to be the Grim Reaper or ghosted me when we were to meet.

From Los Angeles Times