In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and its dependentsobjects, complements and other modifiersbut not always including the subject. Thus in the sentence A fat man put the money quickly in the box, the words put the money quickly in the box is a verb phrase; it consists of the verb put and its dependents, but not the subject a fat man. A verb phrase is similar to what is considered a predicate in more traditional grammars.