To Urge
To Approach, To Press
transitive verb, godan verb
Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means urge so the verb vocab version is to urge.
At its core, 迫る means to approach, like a deadline or danger drawing near. This idea extends to urging someone because it's like you're coming really close to them, to press them into action.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you:
Do you prefer to urge people to do something, or to press them to do it? It depends on how you want to approach them. But it's all semantics (せま) because they're basically the same.
彼に金を返すよう迫ったが、逃げられてしまった。
I pressed him to pay back the money, but he ran away.
表面的なことだけを見ていては、物事の本質に迫ることはできません。
If you only look at the surface, you will never close in on the essence of the matter.
どうやら危険が迫っているようですね。
It appears that danger is imminent.
私は今、大きな決断を迫られています
I am currently being pressed to make a big decision.
一秒前には五メートル先にあったコウイチの顔が急に目前に迫ってきてかなりびっくりした。
I was quite surprised to see Koichi's face, which was five meters away from me a second ago, suddenly looming right in front of me.