Friend pursues gold verbally (6)
I believe the answer is:
orally
'verbally' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adverbs. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'friend pursues gold' is the wordplay.
'friend' becomes 'ally' (an ally is a friend or supporter).
'pursues' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'ally' put after 'or' is 'ORALLY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for orally that I've seen before include "How one speaks" , "given by mouth" , "By spoken word" , "given drugs thus?" , "By (word of) mouth" .)