think on one's feet

React quickly, be mentally agile, as in Reporters bombarded him with difficult questions, but Bill was very good at thinking on his feet . This expression uses on one's feet in the sense of "wide awake, alertly." [First half of 1900s]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Talon	-	English (Modern)
Miroslav	mee-rah-SLAHF (Russian)	Czech, Slovak, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Medieval Slavic
Milla	MEEL-lah (Finnish)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish
Klaudio	-	Croatian
Mignon	['minjɔn]
Penelope	pə-NEL-ə-pee (English)	Greek Mythology, English