diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index ca4c74d9d..5c23255c3 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ export(data.table, tables, setkey, setkeyv, key, haskey, CJ, SJ, copy)
 export(rowwiseDT)
 export(setindex, setindexv, indices)
 export(as.data.table,is.data.table,test.data.table)
-export(last,first,like,"%like%","%ilike%","%flike%","%plike%",between,"%between%",inrange,"%inrange%", "%notin%")
+export(last,first,like,"%like%","%ilike%","%flike%","%plike%",between,"%between%",inrange,"%inrange%", "%notin%", "%fin%")
 export(timetaken)
 export(truelength, setalloccol, setallocrow, alloc.col, ":=", let)
 export(setattr, setnames, setcolorder, set, setDT, setDF)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 5d2c35aa9..31ef6b3b5 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -90,6 +90,8 @@
 
 20. `print.data.table()` now correctly displays data when `col.names="none"` and `row.names=FALSE`, [#7735](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/issues/7735). Thanks to @jan-swissre for the report and @venom1204 for the fix.
 
+21. New `%fin%` operator for fast row-wise existence checks, e.g., `x %fin% y` or `x[, found := .(col1, col2) %fin% y]`. It supports multi-column matching using `data.table` join semantics, offering a concise and high-performance alternative to standard R `%in%` for membership testing, [#2279](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/issues/2279). Thanks to @franknarf1 for the request and @venom1204 for teh implementation.
+
 ### Notes
 
 1. {data.table} now depends on R 3.5.0 (2018).
diff --git a/R/setops.R b/R/setops.R
index 4ae78b193..65ad25285 100644
--- a/R/setops.R
+++ b/R/setops.R
@@ -296,3 +296,29 @@ all.equal.data.table = function(target, current, trim.levels=TRUE, check.attribu
   }
   TRUE
 }
+
+`%fin%` = function(x, y) {
+  mc = match.call()
+  if (is.list(x) && !is.data.table(x)) {
+    if (is.call(mc$x) && (identical(mc$x[[1L]], quote(`list`)) || identical(mc$x[[1L]], quote(`.`)))) {
+      nms = names(mc$x)
+      arg_names = as.character(mc$x[-1L])
+      if (is.null(nms)) {
+        names(x) = arg_names
+      } else {
+        names(x) = ifelse(!nzchar(nms[-1L]), arg_names, nms[-1L])
+      }
+    }
+    x = as.data.table(x)
+  } else if (!is.data.table(x)) {
+    x = as.data.table(list(x))
+    setnames(x, names(y)[1])
+  }
+  join_cols = names(x)
+  if (!all(join_cols %in% names(y))) {
+    stopf("All columns in the left-hand side (%s) must exist in the right-hand table (%s).",
+          paste(join_cols, collapse=","), paste(names(y), collapse=","))
+  }
+  ans = y[x, .N, on=join_cols, by=.EACHI]
+  ans$N > 0L
+}
diff --git a/inst/tests/tests.Rraw b/inst/tests/tests.Rraw
index 7cb84b7ec..b3c352a71 100644
--- a/inst/tests/tests.Rraw
+++ b/inst/tests/tests.Rraw
@@ -21985,3 +21985,14 @@ DT3 = data.table(a=c(1,NA), b=c("x",NA), c=c(3,NA))
 test(2387.04, setnafill(copy(DT3), type="locf", cols=sapply(DT3, is.numeric)), data.table(a=c(1,1), b=c("x",NA), c=c(3,3)))
 test(2387.05, setnafill(copy(DT3), type="locf", cols=c(TRUE,NA,FALSE)), error="'cols' contains NA at position 2")
 test(2387.06, setnafill(copy(DT3), type="locf", cols=c(TRUE,FALSE)), error="'cols' is a logical vector of length 2 but there are 3 columns")
+
+# %fin% set operator, #2279
+x = data.table(name=c("A","B","C"), year=c(2020,2020,2021), grade=c(8,9,10)); y = data.table(name=c("A","B","D"), year=c(2020,2019,2021), grade=c(8,9,10))
+test(2388.01, x %fin% y, c(TRUE,FALSE,FALSE))
+test(2388.02, x[, .(name,year,grade) %fin% y], c(TRUE,FALSE,FALSE))
+test(2388.03, data.table(name=c("A","A","B"),year=c(2020,2020,2021),grade=c(8,8,9)) %fin% y, c(TRUE,TRUE,FALSE))
+test(2388.04, data.table(name=c("A","B"),year=c(2020,2021),grade=c(8,9)) %fin% y, c(TRUE,FALSE))
+test(2388.05, data.table(name=c("A","B"),year=c(2020,2021),grade=c(8,9)) %fin% data.table(name=c("A","B"),year=c(2020,2021)), error="All columns in the left-hand side")
+test(2388.06, data.table(name=c("A","B"),year=c(2020,2021),grade=c(8,9)) %fin% data.table(name=c("A","B"),year=c(2020,2021),grade=c(8,9),extra=c(1,2)), c(TRUE,TRUE))
+test(2388.07, list(name=c("A","B"), year=c(2020,2022)) %fin% y, c(TRUE,FALSE))
+test(2388.08, c("A","B") %fin% y[, .(name)], c(TRUE,TRUE))
diff --git a/man/setops.Rd b/man/setops.Rd
index dfa2572c7..78b6f1e87 100644
--- a/man/setops.Rd
+++ b/man/setops.Rd
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 \alias{funion}
 \alias{setequal}
 \alias{fsetequal}
+\alias{\%fin\%}
 \title{ Set operations for data tables }
 \description{
   Similar to base R set functions, \code{union}, \code{intersect}, \code{setdiff} and \code{setequal} but for \code{data.table}s. Additional \code{all} argument controls how duplicated rows are handled. Functions \code{fintersect}, \code{setdiff} (\code{MINUS} or \code{EXCEPT} in SQL) and \code{funion} are meant to provide functionality of corresponding SQL operators. Unlike SQL, data.table functions will retain row order.
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ fintersect(x, y, all = FALSE)
 fsetdiff(x, y, all = FALSE)
 funion(x, y, all = FALSE)
 fsetequal(x, y, all = TRUE)
+x \%fin\% y
 }
 \arguments{
 	\item{x, y}{\code{data.table}s.}
@@ -33,6 +35,7 @@ fsetequal(x, y, all = TRUE)
 }
 \details{
   \code{bit64::integer64} columns are supported but not \code{complex} and \code{list}, except for \code{funion}.
+  \code{\%fin\%} provides a fast way to check if rows of x exist in y.
 }
 \value{
     A data.table in case of \code{fintersect}, \code{funion} and \code{fsetdiff}. Logical \code{TRUE} or \code{FALSE} for \code{fsetequal}.
@@ -54,5 +57,9 @@ funion(x, y)                # union
 funion(x, y, all=TRUE)      # union all
 fsetequal(x, x2, all=FALSE) # setequal
 fsetequal(x, x2)            # setequal all
+# %fin% operator
+x = data.table(name=c("A","B","C"), year=c(2020,2020,2021))
+y = data.table(name=c("A","B"), year=c(2020,2020))
+x[, found := .(name, year) \%fin\% y]
 }
 \keyword{ data }