verbal

Of or relating to words.

Concerned with the words, rather than the substance of a text.

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.

It was not a verbal remark, but a proceeding in dumb-show

Expressly spoken rather than written; oral.

a verbal contract

a verbal testimony

Derived from, or having the nature of a verb.

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.

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.

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.

To allege (usually falsely) that someone has made an oral admission.

The problem of 'verballing' is unlikely to disappear, whatever the legal status of the person detained.

Condren had always claimed that he was assaulted and verballed by police over the murder he had supposedly confessed to committing. Specifically, Condren claimed that he had been subjected to assault and intimidation prior to making a police record of interview, that the record of interview was largely fabricated by police, and that the oral admissions which police claimed he had made prior to the record of interview were also fabricated.