Verb phrase
From Teflpedia
A verb phrase (/ˈvɜ:(r)b ˈfreɪz/) is a phrase with a verb as its head. That being said, this has been interpreted differently by linguists:
Generative grammar places the object inside the verb phrase. With English at least, this seems to make sense; "play football" can be transformed as a unit into a noun phrase gerund "playing football".