• līlayā — as play
  Cāṇūra reaches for the very word Śuka uses three times in the elephant-killing (43.8, 43.9, 43.14). Even the asura recognizes that Kuvalayāpīḍa was killed līlayā. Bhāgavata note: tattva-jñāna without bhakti makes a demon a sharper demon, not a saved soul.
• kiśoraḥ — a youth
  Kiśora — adolescent. Rūpa Gosvāmī's age-classification in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: kaumāra (5–10), paugaṇḍa (10–15), kiśora (15–onward). Kṛṣṇa is technically in kiśora in this chapter, but the Gauḍīya treasure is that He is nitya-kiśora — eternally fresh in this age in Goloka.
• sahasra-dvipa — of one thousand elephants
  Kuvalayāpīḍa's strength reckoned at a thousand elephants — the standard Bhāgavata measure for hyperbolic prowess. Bhīma is called daśa-sahasra-bala (10,000 elephants) in Mahābhārata; Kuvalayāpīḍa here is at one-tenth that and still falls in play. A contiguous-token join of synonyms 'sahasra' and 'dvipa'.
• sattva-bhṛt — the bearer of strength
  Sattva here means strength/courage (not the guṇa). 'Strength-bearer' — Cāṇūra's grudging acknowledgment that the boy he is about to fight already carries thousand-elephant force. The Bhāgavatam allows the asura to confess what he is about to face. A contiguous-token join of synonyms 'sattva' and 'bhṛt'.

Cāṇūra strips Kṛṣṇa's bāla-disguise: 'You are not a child, nor even a kiśora — You played-killed a thousand-elephant-strong beast.' The asura sees what the citizens just confessed in 43.23–27. He is correct about the tattva and wrong about what to do with it: he should bow, and instead he names the truth as justification to fight.