Wordnet 3.0
ADJECTIVE (6)
1.
communicated in the form of words;
- Example: "verbal imagery"- Example: "a verbal protest"2.
of or relating to or formed from words in general;
- Example: "verbal ability"3.
of or relating to or formed from a verb;
- Example: "verbal adjectives like `running' in `hot and cold running water'"4.
relating to or having facility in the use of words;
- Example: "a good poet is a verbal artist"- Example: "a merely verbal writer who sacrifices content to sound"- Example: "verbal aptitude"5.
expressed in spoken words;
- Example: "a verbal contract"6.
prolix;
- Example: "you put me to forget a lady's manners by being so verbal"- Shakespeare
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Verbal \Ver"bal\, a. [F., fr. L. verbalis. See Verb.]
1. Expressed in words, whether spoken or written, but
commonly in spoken words; hence, spoken; oral; not
written; as, a verbal contract; verbal testimony.
[1913 Webster]
Made she no verbal question? --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
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.
--Mayhew.
[1913 Webster]
2. Consisting in, or having to do with, words only; dealing
with words rather than with the ideas intended to be
conveyed; as, a verbal critic; a verbal change.
[1913 Webster]
And loses, though but verbal, his reward. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Mere verbal refinements, instead of substantial
knowledge. --Whewell.
[1913 Webster]
3. Having word answering to word; word for word; literal; as,
a verbal translation.
[1913 Webster]
4. Abounding with words; verbose. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Gram.) Of or pertaining to a verb; as, a verbal group;
derived directly from a verb; as, a verbal noun; used in
forming verbs; as, a verbal prefix.
[1913 Webster]
Verbal inspiration. See under Inspiration.
Verbal noun (Gram.), a noun derived directly from a verb or
verb stem; a verbal. The term is specifically applied to
infinitives, and nouns ending in -ing, esp. to the latter.
See Gerund, and -ing, 2. See also, Infinitive mood,
under Infinitive.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Verbal \Ver"bal\, n. (Gram.)
A noun derived from a verb.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
verbal
adj 1: communicated in the form of words; "verbal imagery"; "a
verbal protest"
2: of or relating to or formed from words in general; "verbal
ability"
3: of or relating to or formed from a verb; "verbal adjectives
like `running' in `hot and cold running water'"
4: relating to or having facility in the use of words; "a good
poet is a verbal artist"; "a merely verbal writer who
sacrifices content to sound"; "verbal aptitude" [ant:
mathematical, numerical]
5: expressed in spoken words; "a verbal contract"
6: prolix; "you put me to forget a lady's manners by being so
verbal"- Shakespeare
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
140 Moby Thesaurus words for "verbal":
adjectival, adverbial, answering, articulated, attributive,
authentic, bona fide, candid, card-carrying, colloquial,
communicating, communicational, communional, conjunctive,
conversational, copulative, correct, dinkum, enunciated, expressed,
following the letter, formal, functional, genuine, glossematic,
good, grammatic, honest, honest-to-God, iconic, inartificial,
interacting, interactional, interactive, intercommunicational,
intercommunicative, intercommunional, interresponsive,
interrogative, interrogatory, intransitive, lawful, legitimate,
lexemic, lexical, lifelike, lingual, linguistic, linking, literal,
morphemic, natural, naturalistic, nominal, nuncupative, oral,
original, parol, participial, phrasal, postpositional,
prepositional, pronominal, pronounced, pure, questioning, real,
realistic, responsive, rightful, said, semantic, semantological,
semasiological, sememic, semiotic, simon-pure, simple, sincere,
sounded, speech, spoken, sterling, structural, substantive,
sure-enough, symbolic, syntactic, tagmemic, telepathic,
traditional, transitive, transmissional, true to life,
true to nature, true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected,
unassumed, unassuming, uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied,
uncounterfeited, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted,
unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful, unfeigned, unfeigning,
unfictitious, unflattering, unimagined, unimitated, uninvented,
unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unromantic, unsimulated,
unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished, unwritten, uttered, verbatim,
veridical, verisimilar, viva voce, vocabular, vocabulary, vocal,
vocalized, voiced, voiceful, word, word-for-word, word-of-mouth
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
VERBAL. Parol; by word of mouth; as verbal agreement; verbal evidence. Not
in writing.