The article deals with the system of metaphorical interpretations of the words with the content of wind and their semantic role as the components of phraseological units in the Russian language. The material illustrating the main positions of the article is represented by citations from the classical and modern works of the Russian literature which more or less directly reflect the semantics of wind. The conclusion is made that the metaphorical potentials of such lexemes create abundant possibilities for their figurative use for the stylistic and other pragmatic purposes. This potential is determined by the universal role of the wind in the life of any people and, in particular, by the associative ties between the wind and the highly intensive and deep physical, individual and social phenomena important from the Russian language community point of view. This can be noticed in the emergence of numerous metaphorical models which can further be developed into numerous phraseo-semantic models which are characterized by their intensive use for creating different pragmatic effects.