Passes certain measures (5)
I believe the answer is:
hands
'passes' is the definition.
('hand' can be a synonym of 'pass')
'certain measures' is the wordplay.
'certain' becomes 'han' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'measures' becomes 'Ds' (D is an example).
'han'+'ds'='HANDS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hands that I've seen before include "Gives" , "Workers" , "Players' cards" , "Cards given out in deal" , "Measurements for horses" .)