‘刮风’ literally combines ‘刮’ (guā), meaning 'to scrape' or 'to blow forcefully', and ‘风’ (fēng), meaning 'wind'. Together, it describes the action of wind blowing — not just gentle breezes, but any perceptible movement of air, often with noticeable force. It’s an intransitive verb that emphasizes the occurrence of wind as a natural phenomenon, commonly used in weather reports, daily conversation, and descriptions of outdoor conditions.

The phrase is neutral in register and widely used across spoken and written Chinese. Unlike English 'to blow', which requires a subject ('the wind blows'), ‘刮风’ itself functions as the complete verbal predicate: you say ‘今天刮风’ (It’s windy today), not ‘风刮风’. It’s rarely used with objects and doesn’t take aspect particles like ‘了’ unless indicating a change of state (e.g., ‘开始刮风了’ — 'It has started to get windy').