verbal

Etymology

From Old French verbal, from Late Latin verbālis (“belonging to a word”). Equivalent to verb + -al.

adj

1. Of or relating to words.
2. Concerned with the words, rather than the substance of a text.
3. Consisting of words only.
   We subjoin an engraving […] which will give the reader a far better notion of the structure than any verbal description could convey to the mind. 1864, Henry Mayhew, German Life and Manners as Seen in Saxony at the Present
   It was not a verbal remark, but a proceeding in dumb-show 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
4. Expressly spoken rather than written; oral.
   a verbal contract
   a verbal testimony
   You can't have verbal communication with a man in New South Wales, you know. 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
   I am not speaking of the verbal use of the term 'Fascist'. I am speaking of what I have seen in print. 1944, George Orwell, “What is Fascism?”, in Tribune
5. (grammar) Derived from, or having the nature of a verb.
6. (grammar) Used to form a verb.
7. Capable of speech.
   How do these language problems affect the behaviour of verbal children? 2005, Avril V. Brereton, Bruce J. Tonge, Pre-schoolers with autism, page 55
8. Word for word.
   a verbal translation
9. (obsolete) Abounding with words; verbose.

noun

1. (countable, grammar) A verb form which does not function as a predicate, or a word derived from a verb. In English, infinitives, participles and gerunds are verbals.
2. (countable, UK, Ireland) A spoken confession given to police.
   They were convicted on the evidence of an agent provocateur named Richard Seary, backed up by police verbals from three police officers who gave evidence of six verbals in which the three accused were supposed to have admitted their guilt. 1982, New South Wales. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, page 2496
3. (uncountable, UK, Ireland, colloquial) Talk; speech, especially banter or scolding.
   We'd give him a bit of verbal, out would come the bouncers, chucking their weight about, and it would all end in a right tear-up. 2013, Lenny McLean, The Guv'nor

verb

1. (transitive, Britain, Australia) To induce into fabricating a confession.
   "The problem of 'verballing' is unlikely to disappear, whatever the legal status of the person detained." 1982, John A. Andrews, Human Rights in Criminal Procedure: A Comparative Study, BRILL, page 128
   Condren had always claimed that he was assaulted and verballed by police over the murder he had supposedly confessed to committing. 2001, Chris Cunneen, Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police, Allen & Unwin, page 116
   Moreover, given the risk of verballing, it is by no means apparent that it is in the interests of justice that the prosecution have the benefit of admissions that are made on occasions when recordings are impracticable. 2004, Jeremy Gans, Andrew Palmer, Australian Principles of Evidence, Routledge Cavendish, page 504