The three verbals— gerunds, infinitives, and participles—are formed from verbs, but are never used alone as action words in sentences. Instead, verbals function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. ... Usually it functions as a noun, although it can also function as an adjective or adverb.
When a verb acts as some other part of speech (a noun, an adjective, an adverb or even an interjection), it is called a verbal. The name verbal shows that the verb is being used as a different part of speech. Here are a couple of verbal example