bregar

A common verb meaning to toil, struggle, or grapple with something difficult — bregar con problemas, bregar para salir adelante — and, more specifically in some regional and nautical Spanish, to fight or scuffle. Widely used across the Spanish-speaking world for the general 'to struggle/deal with' sense.

• Llevan años bregando con la misma burocracia. — They've spent years struggling with the same bureaucracy.
• Bregó toda la vida para sacar adelante a su familia. — He struggled his whole life to support his family.
• Hay que bregar duro para conseguir ese puesto. — You have to fight hard to get that position.

Bregar implies a sustained, often thankless struggle — using it for a quick, trivial task would overstate the effort; luchar or esforzarse are close, but bregar specifically carries that grinding, drawn-out quality.