Fought verbally (7)
I believe the answer is:
sparred
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">fought verbally</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">('spar' can be a synonym of 'fight verbally')</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for sparred that I've seen before include "Boxed; argued" , "Fought" , "Did train at boxing" .)