To Grasp, To Clasp
transitive verb, godan verb
Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means grip and the verb vocab version is to grasp.
にぎる
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: You go to grasp someone. You really need them. You are soooo needy (にぎ). Except, you can't really pronounce "d" sounds very well, so you say にぎ.
おにぎりは、ご飯を握って作るので「お握り」と呼ばれています。
Since you make rice balls by pressing rice, it's called "onigiri."