Windblown describes something that has been shaped, scattered, or disheveled by the wind. When you step off a boat after a windy sail, your hair might be completely windblown, sticking up in different directions. A windblown tree on a coastal cliff leans permanently away from the ocean, its branches all growing in one direction because the constant sea breeze has shaped it that way over many years.

The word captures that wild, tousled look that wind creates. Windblown leaves scatter across a playground in autumn. A windblown umbrella turns inside out during a storm. When someone has a windblown appearance, they look like they've just walked through gusty weather, whether they actually have or not.

The word suggests natural force and movement. A windblown landscape might show sand dunes shaped by steady breezes, or grasses bent low by mountain winds. There's something free and untamed about windblown things. They carry evidence of the invisible air currents that pushed and pulled them into their present state.