The Grim Reaper is an imaginary character who represents death. He looks like a skeleton, wears a long, black cloak with a hood, and carries a scythe. The personification of death as a cloaked man or skeleton carrying a scythe. a name given to Death in stories and literature. He is shown in pictures as a human skeleton in long black clothes that also cover his head, carrying a large scythe (=a tool for cutting crops)