Grim Reaper
A personification of Death as an old man, or a skeleton, carrying a scythe, taking…A personification of Death as an old man, or a skeleton, carrying a scythe, taking souls to the afterlife.
» The grim reaper has the maximum body count.
Meaning
1 sensesA personification of Death as an old man, or a skeleton, carrying a scythe, taking souls to the afterlife.
Gevatter Tod, Sensenmann, Schnitter
смерть, костля́ваяkostljávaja, а́нгел сме́ртиángel smérti
Examples
4 sentencesThe grim reaper has the maximum body count.
Ziri's Halloween costume reminded Rima of the Grim Reaper.
The Grim Reaper slowly extended his right arm towards Yanni.
ruМрачный Жнец медленно протянул правую руку к Янни. — Setup
"It's war," said the Grim Reaper and put his scythe aside to get onto the combine harvester.
de„Es ist Krieg“, sagte der Tod, stellte seine Sense in die Ecke und stieg auf den Mähdrescher. — Plusquamperfekt
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From grim + reaper, first attested 1847. The word grim previously had a stronger meaning (From grim + reaper, first attested 1847. The word grim previously had a stronger meaning ("fierce, angry, sinister") and had more of an association with ghostliness (compare Old English grima (“specter, apparition”), English grim (n.)). The association between grim and death dates back to at least the late 16th century (the line "grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image" appears in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew around 1590). The reaper element comes from the personification of Death as a reaper (harvester) of souls in connection to the popular depiction of Death wielding a scythe. The symbol of the scythe itself comes from a partially unintentional conflation of Cronus (the Titan associated with the harvest, said to have used his scythe to castrate his father Uranus) and Chronos (the personification of Father Time).
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