verbal noun

A verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. See also: gerund.

Examples and Observations:

• "No eating here tonight, no eating here tonight, no no no eating here tonight: you're on a diet!"
  (Dory in Finding Nemo, 2003)



• "The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass."
  (Martin Mull)



• "For, truth to tell, dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?"
  (Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1889)


• "Gerunds are defined by two properties, the first making them verb-like, the second noun-like:

  (a) A gerund contains (at least) a verb stem and the suffix -ing.
  
  (b) A gerund has one of the functions that are characteristic of nouns--or rather, . . . a gerund heads a phrase with one of the functions that are characteristic of NPs . . ..

  "The combination of verb-like and noun-like properties given in (a) and (b) underlies the traditional characterisation of gerunds as 'verbal nouns.' Note, however, that this latter term, 'verbal noun,' implies that greater weight is attached to (b) than to (a): a verbal noun is primarily a kind of noun, not a kind of verb."
  (Rodney D. Huddleston, Introduction to the Grammar of English, Cambridge University Press, 1984)