Characteristic passage, a non-starter (5)
I believe the answer is:
trait
'characteristic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'passage a non-starter' is the wordplay.
'passage' becomes 'strait' (I've seen this before).
'a non-starter' means to remove the first letter (the letter which starts the word is ignored).
'strait' with its initial letter taken off is 'TRAIT'.
(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "Idiosyncrasy" , "Attribute, characteristic" , "Quirk" , "A characteristic of straitened kind" , "Distinguishing characteristic of personality" .)